California NanoSystems Institute

Dr. Gene Block became chancellor of UCLA on August 1, 2007, taking the helm of a world-class institution comprising 37,000 students and 27,000 faculty and staff, with an annual budget of $3.8 billion. As chief executive officer, he oversees all aspects of the university's three-part mission of education, research and service. An advocate of interdisciplinary scholarship, Chancellor Block emphasizes broad-based, campus-wide planning.

A champion of public universities, Chancellor Block has called for UCLA to deepen its engagement with Los Angeles, a city that offers a microcosm of the global community, and to increase access for students from underrepresented populations. An advocate of interdisciplinary scholarship, he emphasizes broad-based, campus-wide planning

David Crane is Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Jobs and Economic Growth. Before joining the Schwarzenegger Administration, Crane was a partner for 25 years with Babcock & Brown, an investment/merchant bank that grew from five employees in one office when he joined in 1979 to more than 400 people in 18 offices around the world when he retired in 2003. A graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, Crane lives with his wife and two children in San Francisco.

Gray Davis served as California's 37th Governor from 1999 to 2003. During his term as governor, Davis made education his top priority and was a founding supporter of the original proposal to establish the CNSI, one of four California Institutes of Science and Innovation. Since his time in office, Davis has worked as a guest lecturer at UCLA's School of Public Policy and as an attorney at Loeb & Loeb.

Dr. Paolo Gargini is the Director of Technology Strategy for Intel Corporation. Dr. Gargini is also responsible for world-wide research activities conducted outside Intel for the Technology and Manufacturing Group by consortia, institutes and universities.

Since joining Intel in 1978, Dr. Gargini has conducted studies on Process Reliability; he was responsible for developing the building blocks of HMOS III and CHMOS III technologies used in the 1980's for the 80286 and the 80386 processors. In 1985 he headed the first submicron process development team at Intel.

With more than 25 years in the industry, Dr. Gargini is helping to navigate tough process and manufacturing waters. He initiated and became the first Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nano Electronics Research Initiative (NERC) funded in June 2005 by SIA. This Initiative is aimed at supporting and focusing research in universities towards subsequent commercialization of Nanoelectronics. NERC actively cooperates in this effort with USG organizations such as NNI, NSF, DARPA, and NIST. Dr. Gargini is a CNSI Advisory and Oversight Board Member.

Intel is a founding industry partner of the CNSI. It supports FENA and is a funding member of WIN, as well as a provider of equipment, sponsored research and on site technical support to the above activities.

Don R. Kania, Ph.D., is president, CEO and a board member of the nanotechnology company, FEI Company. FEI is a leading global supplier of electron microscopes and focused ion beam equipment. Prior to joining FEI, Dr. Kania was employed by Veeco Instruments where he held positions including; President of Veeco Metrology Group, Vice-President and CTO. At Veeco he grew businesses in atomic force microscopy, data storage and high brightness light emitting diodes. Starting in 1993, Dr. Kania was a senior manager at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory where he directed the Advanced Microtechnology Program in the development of advanced sensors for data storage, extreme ultraviolet lithography for semiconductor manufacturing and several other leading-edge technologies. From 1991 to 1993, Dr. Kania was Research Director at Crystallume, a thin film diamond company. Dr. Kania's other experience includes nine years of research experience at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos and Livermore Laboratory.

Dr. Kania received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics and engineering from the University of Michigan.

Dan Kania is a member of the CNSI Advisory and Oversight Board. Through a CNSI-FEI partnership arrangement, FEI Company is collaborating with the Electron Imaging Center for NanoMachines (EICN) core facility at CNSI to develop cutting-edge technologies for high resolution electron imaging.

Dr. Ulrich Müller is the Research Director for BASF Aktiengesellschaft. He was born 1957 in Katzenelnbogen, Germany. In 1977 he graduated from Johannes-Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany where he studied Chemistry. His thesis was on the synthesis of large zeolite crystals and adsorption properties, and he received his Ph.D. in the group of Prof. K.K. Unger at the University of Mainz in 1989. His research activities have included work at CNRS 'Tian & Calvet', Marseille, ILL Grenoble, and with G.T. Kokotailo of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1989 he began work at the Ammonia Laboratory of BASF on zeolite synthesis and application in catalysis and adsorption. In 1999 he was named a Senior Scientist, involved with zeolite catalysis: CFC-free polyurethane foams, catalysts for crop protection agents, chemical intermediates, sorptive olefin feedstream purification, and piloting of propylene epoxidation catalysts. The primary focus of Dr. Müller's research is on the synthesis, scale-up, modification and testing of various metal-organic framework compositions. In 2005 he was named as BASF Research Director of Catalysis Research - Zeolite Catalysts.

Dr. Müller is named as a co-inventor or co-author on approximately 100 patents and papers respectively. He is a Member of the German, British and International Zeolite Association, and was a Board Member of the German Zeolite Association from 1997 to 2003. He has been on the DECHEMA-Committee 'Zeolites' since 1992. He has been an Advisory Board Member of the 'nanomac' Nanomaterials Centre at The University of Queensland, Australia since 2002. He has been a Board member of GDCh-Fachgruppe Festkörperchemie und Materialforschung since 2006.

BASF Chemical Company has pledged $5 million in support of the Center for Reticular Chemistry at CNSI along with an additional $2.5 million for CNSI fellowships in reticular materials research. BASF is a founding partner of the CNSI.

Assemblymember Anthony Portantino was elected to serve the 44th Assembly District in November of 2006. He is very active in environmental protection, and has made several lobbying trips to Washington D.C. Assemblymember Portantino also was instrumental in securing purchase grants for important regional open space in cities throughout the area. Most recently he spearheaded the effort to fund the Trust for Public Land to help acquire the Annandale Canyon Estates property in the City of Pasadena.

Leonard H. Rome is a cell biologist and biochemist who has served on the UCLA School of Medicine faculty since he joined the Department of Biological Chemistry in 1979. He became a full professor in 1988 and has been Senior Associate Dean for Research in the School of Medicine since 1997. Dr. Rome earned his B.S. in Chemistry and M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked on lysosome biogenesis. Dr. Rome has chaired the School of Medicine Faculty Executive Committee and is actively involved in graduate and medical education. Dr. Rome is also the Director for Strategic Planning and Partnerships at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center He is a recipient of the School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Education.

Since becoming Senior Associate Dean for Research, he has organized a strategic plan for research in the School and spearheaded campus-wide efforts in genomics, proteomics, and computational biology. His laboratory research centers on a novel cellular organelle called a "vault" which was discovered in his laboratory. Dr. Rome is presently organizing a Nanoscience Interdisciplinnary Research Team, a collaboration of disciplines including cell biologists, engineers, chemists, and structural biologists who will engineer vaults so that they may one day be used in drug delivery and as components of nano-electrical machines.

Dr. Soon-Shiong became chairman and chief executive officer of Abraxis BioScience in April 2006. Dr. Soon-Shiong previously served APP as president since July 2001 and chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors from its inception in March 1996. Since June 1994, Dr. Soon-Shiong also served as president, chief financial officer and a director of American BioScience, Inc. From June 1994 to June 1998, he served as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors of VivoRX, Inc., a biotechnology company. Dr. Soon-Shiong is named as a co-inventor on over 40 issued U.S. and foreign patents and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Soon-Shiong holds a degree in medicine from the University of the Witwatersrand and a M.Sc. in science from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Soon-Shiong is a CNSI Advisory and Oversight Board Member.

A founding partner of CNSI, Abraxis BioScience is working with the institute to collaborate on nanobiotechnology research for the advancement of new technologies in medicine. Abraxis is contributing $10 million over 10 years to fund collaborative projects at CNSI. The Abraxis/CNSI Research Collaboration Lab will focus on translational science, quickly translating scientific discoveries into practical applications

Rafael Viñoly Architects PC is a critically acclaimed international practice headquartered in New York with affiliate offices in London and Los Angeles. Viñoly has practiced architecture for forty-five years in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. His work has been recognized in the world's leading design publications. The CNSI building at UCLA is one of the many notable building design projects of Rafael Viñoly Architects and it is their first completed building in California.

Rafael Viñoly Architects / California NanoSystems Institute project description

R. Stanley Williams is an HP Senior Fellow at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories and founding Director of the HP Quantum Science Research (QSR) group, with more than 50 scientists and engineers working in areas of fundamental physical sciences.

Established in 1994, QSR is focused on preparing HP for the challenges and opportunities ahead in electronic, photonic and mechanical device technology as features continue to shrink to the nanometer-size scale, where quantum mechanics becomes important.

R. Stanley Williams is the Chair of the CNSI Advisory and Oversight Board.

A founding partner of CNSI, Hewlett-Packard has contributed $8.4 million in funding to the institute for sponsored research, equipment and fellowships and has ongoing collaborations in the area of nonlinear nano computing.