On Wednesday morning Gov. Gavin Newsom gathered with business and education leaders at the former Westside Pavilion Mall, not to discuss the future of retail, but to celebrate the future of immunology and quantum science research.
Newsom has provided UCLA with $200 million in state funding to transform the 700,000 square-foot property into a research park focused on curing diseases, turbocharging computers’ problem-solving capabilities and helping humanity adapt to the challenges of the future. The state has committed an additional $300 million in the future to continue supporting UCLA’s research, he said.
“What I love to say about about the state of California is the future happens here first; we are the state of dreamers, of doers, of entrepreneurs and innovators” Newsom said on Wednesday. “We also recognize that if you’re going to do well in the future, you’ve got to invest in it and that’s really the spirit of why we are here.”
The envisioned research park, located two miles from UCLA’s Westwood campus, will house the new California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering.
Immunology research fights disease though a better understanding the immune system, while quantum science advances technology through a better understanding of subatomic particles — the minute building blocks of the universe.
The aim is to position UCLA, and by extension the state of California, at the cutting edge of these two rapidly-expanding and important fields of research.
The research park is slated to be complete in May 2027, with the talent recruitment and staffing process likely to take another two years, Newsom said. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said its two centers will have a “monumental impact” on UCLA, Los Angeles, the state — and the world.
“It will enable the remarkable university to grow, flourish and continue to serve the public good in our second century,” Block…
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