NSF to Establish $15.5M Center for Living Systems at UChicago
Note: This new UChicago center plans to collaborate with the university-affiliated Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Argonne National Laboratory. The center's director, Prof. Margaret Gardel, has participated in the MBL Physiology course as a student (2004) teaching assistant, lecturer, faculty (2010, 2011) and scholar (2012). She was also a member of the MBL-HHMI Summer Institute in 2017.
The National Science Foundation has awarded $15.5 million to researchers at the University of Chicago over six years to establish a new field of physics that focuses on how living matter can store, retrieve, and process information.
Known as the Center for Living Systems, it is one of four newly funded National Science Foundation Physics Frontier Centers in 2023 nationwide and will be led by Margaret Gardel, the Horace B. Horton Professor of Physics and Molecular Engineering.
“We aim to establish a new field of physics that focuses on how living matter adapts to its environment on timescales ranging from milliseconds to billions of years,” said Gardel, director of the James Franck Institute and member of the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics. “This will both deepen our understanding of living systems and open opportunities for new technologies.” Read rest of the announcement here.