December 6, 2007 — More than a year after the fanfare-filled launch of the National Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of Madras in India, its first 11 students are still waiting to receive a nanotech education, according to a report in the Indian newspaper The Hindu.

“From July to mid-September, we didn’t have any class at all,” the paper quoted one student as saying. “We were sitting under the trees, we didn’t even have a classroom.”

Another student told the paper that the center, which had promised to attract Nobel laureates, had not hired any staff.

The center has “drafted” a few staff members from other departments, but none of them are familiar with nanotechnology and are trying to teach the students based on Internet downloads.

“Not one professor is an expert in the nanotech field,” one student told the paper.