The Kavli Nanoscience Institute at the California Institute of Technology (KNI) transcends traditional disciplines and works at the frontiers of science and engineering. Building on Caltech’s history as a pioneering institution in research at the nanoscale, KNI studies the potential application of nanoscience to fields such as biotechnology and photonics. In all its areas of focus, it looks beyond individual nanoscale structures and devices toward the goal of integrating them into nanosystems. Founded in 2004, the Institute is co-led by Axel Scherer and Michael Roukes. Read more.

The Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science (KIC) serves as a catalyst for thought and imagination – not by funding specific research or experiments, but by bringing together a diverse range of scientists to share their ideas and visions for nanoscale science and technology. Founded in 2004 and led by Robert C. Richardson, Cornell University’s Senior Science Advisor to the President and Provost, KIC supports such activities as lectures, symposia, summer schools, and workshops (for journalists as well as scientists). Read more.

The Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, at the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, explores the theoretical and practical frontiers of nanoscience, studying new physics and exploiting novel principles to develop new devices, materials and methods of fabrication. Established in 2004 and led by Hans Mooij, the Institute explores the secret of protein nanomachinery in cells, the coupling of biological systems to solid state information processing, molecular electronics and quantum information processing. A new bionanoscience department will focus on the meeting point of biology and nanotechnology, a largely unexplored area expected to become one of the key scientific fields of the 21st century. Read more.

The Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard University (KIBST), founded in 2006, operates with two broad-based goals in mind: the creation of new methods and instruments to study the deepest questions in biology, and the application of such knowledge to the health sciences and biotechnology. In pursuit of these goals, it brings together a wide range of researchers, including physicists, engineers, geneticists, chemists, biologists and clinicians. It gives them access to the most advanced technology, such as atomic force microscopes and optical microscopes that can resolve details smaller than a wavelength of light. The Institute is co-directed by George Whitesides and David Weitz. Read more.