Gov. Gray Davis announced Dec. 7 that the California NanoSystems Institute — a broad-scope research enterprise poised to make a major impact in areas ranging from molecular medicine to information technology — will receive $100 million in state funding to boost California’s scientific edge and drive its economy into the 21st century.

A partnership between UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, the institute was one of three proposals selected to receive the money over the next four years under Davis’ California Institutes for Science and Innovation program. The other two centers selected are the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at UC San Diego in collaboration with UC Irvine; and the California Institute for Bioengineering, Biotechnology and Quantitative Biomedicine at UC San Francisco in collaboration with UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz.

“These centers of science innovation will not just be portals of the new economy, they will be the pilots of the new economy,” said Davis — standing next to UC President Richard Atkinson — as he announced his decision from Sacramento via satellite to a buoyant audience in Ackerman Grand Ballroom. “No one knows for sure what breakthroughs will occur. But, believe me, those breakthroughs will occur in California.”

Said Atkinson: “Thanks to Gov. Davis’ vision and leadership, a new chapter is opening in the university’s long history of producing the research innovations that have fueled California’s economic successes of the 20th century.”

The nanosystems institute — which will operate out of two facilities at UCLA and one at UCSB — will explore the potential of manipulating structures atom by atom to engineer new materials, devices and systems that will dramatically change virtually every aspect of our technology, including health care, information technologies and innovations for the environment.

Davis required the institutes to obtain a two-to-one match of the state-funded $100 million with non-state funds. Interest from the private sector, however, has been so strong that the match is now closer to three-to-one.

The nanosystems institute, directed by Martha Krebs, former U.S. assistant secretary of energy, already has agreements with almost 30 companies — including Hewlett-Packard and SunMicrosystems — which, together, have pledged nearly $50 million.

“Its establishment puts us on track to become the world’s preeminent center for nanoscience research — science and engineering done at the scale of the nanometer, a billionth of a meter, the scale of individual atoms,” said Chancellor Albert Carnesale. “This is an exciting day for us, for our campuses and for the people of California.”

The chancellor, who was accompanied by UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang, addressed celebrants in Ackerman and participated in a panel discussion with scientists and administrators.

Some of the institute’s goals include creating the technologies for smaller, faster and more efficient computers, space-age lightbulbs that use less energy and never burn out and therapies that target the molecular errors that cause disease.

“You go to a doctor now, and you complain of symptoms, and the doctor gives you medicine to treat those symptoms,” explained James R. Heath, UCLA chemistry professor. “But in fact, what you would like to do is go to the doctor and know what molecular errors are causing the disease and get a treatment custom-designed for your molecular code.”

Those are just some of the tremendous possibilities, Heath said. He will serve as a scientific co-director of the institute along with Evelyn Hu, UCSB professor of electrical and computer engineering and materials.

“You can point to anything that is made now, and then point to how it can be completely revolutionized by nanoscience. That’s why we’re all excited by it — the promise is that great, although the challenges are equally great.”

The three institutes won the recommendation of an appointed panel of scholars and scientific experts.

Also at the panel’s urging, the governor promised to include funding in his state budget next year for a fourth center — the California Institute of Technology at UC Berkeley.

To see a video on nanoscience, go to www.ucla.edu/video/nano.html.