|
Governor releases $82 million
in capital projects
Send a link to a friend
University plays important role in state economic development
Governor meets with Noble Prize, Crafoord winners
[OCT. 13, 2003]
CHAMPAIGN --
Remarking that the university environment also can serve as an
economic engine, Gov. Blagojevich announced on Friday that he will
release $82 million in state capital dollars to fund a laboratory at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and another lab at
the University of Illinois Chicago.
|
|
The governor also congratulated
the university for being the home of two Nobel Prize winners and one
Crafoord winner in one year. Joining the governor and University of
Illinois President James Stukel at the announcement were Nobel Prize
winners Paul Lauterbur for medicine and Anthony Leggett for physics
and Carol Woese, who won the Crafoord Prize, which is the equivalent
of the Nobel Prize for biosciences.
"When we award state funds, we
generally look at certain criteria like need, the availability of
matching funds or potential for economic growth," said the governor.
"But let me tell you, knowing that money we award will be used to
help further the research of a faculty that has two Nobel Prize
winners and one Crafoord Prize winner this year alone certainly
helps."
At the University of Illinois
in Urbana-Champaign, the governor released $18 million to build the
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory in Urbana-Champaign. The Micro
and Nanotechnology Laboratory in the College of Engineering will be
a multidisciplinary research facility that supports research in
photonics, microelectronics, nanotechnology and biotechnology. The
research activities carried out in the laboratory can be divided
into four areas: optoelectronics and photonic systems,
microelectronics for wireless communications, microelectromechanical
systems, and nanobiosystems. The laboratory will spearhead research
and industrial collaboration in nanotechnology solutions to biotech
and "info tech" challenges.
[to top of second column in
this article]
 |
"In my State of the State
speech last March, I talked about nanotechnology … the manipulation
of matter at an atomic level. That means we can build materials that
are stronger and smaller than ever before," said the governor. "And
that means we can create new products that people will want to buy,
meaning new jobs, new growth and new development for Illinois."
The governor also released $64
million to build the Advanced Chemical Technology Laboratory at the
University of Illinois Chicago. The proposed new building (117,000
net square feet) will replace existing space that is both limited
and outdated and will allow for the creation of an interdisciplinary
Institute of Environmental Science and Policy, bringing together
faculty members who have succeeded at commercializing products. The
proposed Institute of Environmental Science and Policy will serve as
a clearinghouse for more than 40 faculty members in six colleges who
will tackle complex, interdisciplinary problems. The new chemistry
faculty has already developed products destined for the market, such
as using DNA probe diagnostics for H1V and hepatitis C and for
cancer and genetic screening and metabolites to indicate kidney
stone formation.
"Building the advanced chem lab doesn't only mean developing new
products that will help create new jobs, it means developing new
products that will helping people survive deadly diseases," said
Gov. Blagojevich. "These are exactly the kinds of investments we
should be making in the University of Illinois."
[Illinois
Government News Network
news release]
 |
