The National Science Foundation will award $65 million over five years to science and engineering centers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and at Rice, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard and Northwestern universities for nanoscale research for the advancement of medical, manufacturing and environmental technologies.

Nanoscale research, which focuses on materials with sizes ranging from individual atoms to large molecules, has potential applications in quantum information processing, chemical and biological sensors, the integration of biology with nanochemistry, and the design of materials used as composites in drug delivery and as sensors.

Electronic transport in molecular nanostructures may also be applicable in electronics, photonics, biology, neuroscience and medicine, and the development of nanoscale electronics, photonics and magnets may significantly affect electronics, information storage, communications and sensor technologies.

Electronic transport in molecular nanostructures may also be applicable in electronics, photonics, biology, neuroscience and medicine, and the development of nanoscale electronics, photonics and magnets may significantly affect electronics, information storage, communications and sensor technologies.