National Science Foundation Science and Technology Centers
The Science and Technology Centers (STCs) conduct innovative and potentially transformative research and education projects on complex issues that require the benefit of large-scale, long-term funding. STCs uniquely support the NSF vision of advancing discovery, innovation and education beyond the frontiers of current knowledge, and empowering future generations in science and engineering.
Each STC involves a partnership: among academic institutions, national laboratories, industrial organizations, and/or other public/private entities, and via international collaborations, as appropriate. A 10y investment from NSF provides each partnership with the means for significant investigations to be undertaken at the interfaces of disciplines and/or for fresh approaches to be developed within disciplines. STCs may involve any areas of science and engineering that NSF supports.
Since the inception of the program in 1987, STCs have grown from a new idea into a vital network of programs. They have catalyzed breakthroughs, built bridges of exchange with industry, spun off new technologies and businesses, and trained young scientists and engineers.
The official NSF site for the “Science and Technology Centers (STCs): Integrative Partnerships” program is www.nsf.gov/od/iia/programs/stc/.
Class of 2005-2015
Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS)
www.cresis.ku.edu
Director: Prasad Gogineni
Mission: To develop new technologies and computer models to measure and predict the response of sea level change to the mass balance of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
Lead Institution: University of Kansas
Partner Institutions: Elizabeth City State University; Indiana University; University of Washington; The Pennsylvania State University; Los Alamos National Laboratory; the Association of Computer and Information Science Engineering Departments at Minority Institutions
Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology (TRUST)
www.truststc.org
Director: Shankar Sastry
Mission: To develop cyber security science and technology that will radically transform the ability of organizations to design, build, and operate trustworthy information systems for the nation’s critical infrastructure.
Lead Institution: University of California Berkeley
Partner Institutions: Carnegie Mellon University; Cornell University; San Jose State University; Stanford University; Vanderbilt University
Class of 2006-2016
Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction (CMOP)
www.stccmop.org
Director: António Baptista
Mission: To create a new paradigm for coastal margin science which is anticipatory rather than reactive and is based on an information-rich environment where sensors, models and people all generate and freely share information. We call these integrations “collaboratories.”
Lead Institution: Oregon Health & Science University
Partner Institutions: Oregon State University, University of Washington, Portland State University, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies, Saturday Academy
Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE)
cmore.soest.hawaii.edu
Director: David Karl
Mission: To facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the diverse assemblages of microorganisms in the sea, ranging from the genetic basis of marine microbial biogeochemistry including the metabolic regulation and environmental controls of gene expression, to the processes that underpin the fluxes of carbon, related bioelements and energy in the marine environment.
Lead Institution: University of Hawaii
Partner Institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; Monterey Peninsula College; Oregon State University; University of California Santa-Cruz; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP)
www.cmmap.org
Director: David Randall
Mission: To improve the representation of cloud processes in climate models.
Lead Institution: Colorado State University
Partner Institutions: Colorado College; Columbia University; Hampton University; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; National Center for Atmospheric Research; Pacific Northwest National Laboratories; The Catamount Institute; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, San Diego; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Maryland; University of Utah; University of Washington
Center for Layered Polymeric Systems (CLiPS)
www.stc-clips.org
Director: Eric Baer
Mission: To pursue an integrated program of research, innovation, and education through the vehicle of a unique multilayering process technology at Case Western Reserve University.
Lead Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Partner Institutions: Cleveland Institute of Art; Cleveland Municipal School District; Ohio Northern University; Fisk University; Naval Research Laboratory; Rochester Institute of Technology; Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; State University of New York; University of Southern Mississippi; University of Texas at Austin
Class of 2010-2020
BEACON: An NSF Center for the Study of Evolution in Action
beacon-center.org
Director: Erik Goodman
Mission: To study evolution as it happens and apply this knowledge to solve real-world problems.
Lead Institution: Michigan State University
Partner Institutions: North Carolina A&T State University; University of Idaho; University of Texas at Austin; University of Washington
Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI)
www.darkenergybiosphere.org
Director: Jan Amend
Mission: To explore life beneath the seafloor and make transformative discoveries that advance science, benefit society, and inspire people of all ages and origins.
Lead Institution: University of Southern California
Partner Institutions: University of Alaska, Fairbanks; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Hawaii; University of Rhode Island
Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Science (E3S)
www.e3s-center.org
Director: Eli Yablonovitch
Mission: To open a new energy efficiency frontier in information technology by developing transformative science and technology that reduce energy consumption in electronic systems by orders of magnitude.
Lead Institution: University of California Berkeley
Partner Institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; The University of Texas at El Paso; Contra Costa College; Los Angeles Trade Technical College
Center for Science of Information (CSoI)
soihub.org
Director: Wojciech Szpankowski
Mission: To advance science and technology through a new quantitative understanding of the representation, communication, and processing of information in biological, physical, social, and engineered systems.
Lead Institution: Purdue University
Partner Institutions: Bryn Mawr College; Howard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Princeton University; Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Diego; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS)
ebics.net
Director: Roger Kamm
Mission: To create a new scientific discipline for building living, multi-cellular machines that solve real world problems in health, security, and the environment.
Lead Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Partner Institutions: Clark Atlanta University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Morehouse College; University of California, San Diego; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Michigan; University of Minnesota; University of Pennsylvania; Spelman College; Texas A&M
CLASS OF 2013-2023
Biology with X-ray Free Electron Lasers (BioXFEL)
Director: Eaton Lattman
Mission: To harness new x-ray laser technology to transform the imaging of biomolecules.
Lead Institution: University at Buffalo, SUNY
Partner Institutions: Arizona State University; CFEL Science; Cornell University; Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Rice University; Stanford University; University of California, Davis; University of California, San Francisco; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) 
Director: Tomaso Poggio
Mission: To develop a deep understanding of intelligence, and the ability to engineer it.
Lead Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Partner Institutions: Allen Institute for Brain Science; Cornell University, Harvard University; Howard University; Hunter College; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rockefeller University; Stanford University; University of California, Los Angles; Universidad Central del Caribe Puerto Rico (UCCPR); University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras (UPRRP); Wellesley College
Center for Integrated Quantum Materials (CIQM)
Director: Robert Westervelt
Mission: To transform electronics and photonics from 3D structures to 2D atomic layers, electron surface states, and single-atom devices, using Quantum Materials: Atomic layer materials - Graphene, BN, MoS2; Topological Insulators; Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) Center Diamond.
Lead Institution: Harvard University
Partner Institutions: Howard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Museum of Science, Boston; Bunker Hill Community College; Gallaudet University; Mt Holyoke College; Olin College; Prince George's Community College; Wellesley College
Graduated Class of 2002-2012
Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems (WaterCAMPWS)
www.watercampws.uiuc.edu
Director: Mark A. Shannon
Mission: To develop revolutionary new materials and systems for safely and economically purifying water for human use, while simultaneously developing the diverse human resources needed to exploit the research advances and the knowledge base created.
Lead Institution: University of Illinois
Partner Institutions: Clark Atlanta University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; National Risk Management Research Laboratory; Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Rutgers University; Sandia National Laboratories; University of California at Berkeley; University of Notre Dame; Yale University
Center for Biophotonics Science & Technology (CBST)
cbst.ucdavis.edu
Director: Dennis Matthews
Mission: To advance research, development, and application of new optical/photonic tools and technology in medicine and the life sciences.
Lead Institution: University of California at Davis
Partner Institutions: Alabama A&M University; Fisk University; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Mills College; Stanford University; University of California at Berkeley; University of California at San Francisco; University of Texas at San Antonio
National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics (NCED)
www.nced.umn.edu
Director: Efi Foufoula-Georgiou
Mission: To predict the coupled dynamics and co-evolution of landscapes and their ecosystems in order to transform management and restoration of the Earth-surface environment.
Lead Institution: University of Minnesota
Partner Institutions: Johns Hopkins University; Louisiana State University; Science Museum of Minnesota; Southern Illinois University Carbondale; St. Anthony Falls Laboratory; University of California at Berkeley; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Texas at Austin
Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS)
research.cens.ucla.edu
Director: Deborah Estrin
Mission: To develop and demonstrate architectural principles and methodologies for deeply embedded, massively distributed, sensor-rich distributed systems.
Lead Institution: University of California at Los Angeles
Partner Institutions: California Institute of Technology; University of California at Merced; University of California at Riverside; University of Southern California
Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM)
www.bu.edu/tech/about/research/help/gallery/spaceweather
Director: Jack Quinn
Mission: To create a physics-based numerical simulation model that describes the space environment from the Sun to the Earth
Lead Institution: Boston University
Partner Institutions: Alabama A&M University; Dartmouth College; Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne; National Center for Atmospheric Research; Rice University; Science Applications International Corporation; Stanford University; University of California at Berkeley; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Maryland
Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research (MDITR)
stc-mditr.org
Director: Philip Reid
Mission: To develop new and “disruptive” technologies based upon new organic and hybrid materials processed into devices at low cost.
Lead Institution: University of Washington
Partner Institutions: California Institute of Technology; Cornell University; Georgia Institute of Technology; New Mexico Highlands University; Norfolk State University; University of Arizona; University of Central Florida; University of Maryland, Baltimore County
