September 25, 2007 — Purdue University will get $18.2 million from the federal government to develop more sophisticated simulations of the nanoscale world on desktop computers.

Purdue’s Network for Computational Nanotechnology received the five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to support the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s network launched in 2002.

“This additional funding will help us expand these sophisticated computational tools to researchers, educators and even industry,” said network Director Mark Lundstrom.

The project is based in Purdue’s Discovery Park and includes partners at the University of California-Berkeley, the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Illinois, Norfolk State University, Northwestern University and the University of Texas-El Paso.