U News | Georgia Tech announces another planned innovation district
The University of Chicago will establish the Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine following a gift of $21 million.
From the Georgia Institute of Technology:
In West Midtown, steps away from the heart of the Georgia Tech campus, the Ferst Center for the Arts, and Science Square, a vision is taking shape. It’s Tech’s latest planned innovation district — an arts and entertainment hub for Atlanta called Creative Quarter.
Running along North Avenue and Marietta Street, Creative Quarter will be a place for Tech students to create and connect. It will also serve as another link between Tech and the city, this time through the energy and engagement of arts and creative industries, in a space where new technologies for producing art are developed and shared.
The former Randall Brothers site, where one of Atlanta’s premier building products manufacturers was established in 1885, the same year as Georgia Tech’s founding, will one day anchor Creative Quarter following renovations.
For Georgia Tech, Creative Quarter marks a deeper connection into the intersection of art and technology, drawing on the deep creative energy of Atlanta and the region. For Atlanta, it will be an exciting new arts and entertainment district in a bustling, growing part of the city.
From the University of Chicago:
A $21 million gift from philanthropist Thea Berggren to the University of Chicago (UChicago) will establish the Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine, launching a bold scientific field that merges quantum technology with biology to transform the future of medicine.
This pioneering, interdisciplinary effort seeks to harness the power of quantum engineering — capable of the most sensitive measurements known to science — to peer inside the human body in unprecedented ways. The goal is to unlock insights into biology and disease that were previously out of reach, paving the way for new diagnostics and therapies.
“The establishment of the Berggren Center reflects a commitment to a powerful idea: that the deepest scientific insights often emerge when we bring distinct disciplines together in bold new ways,” said President Paul Alivisatos. “Combining quantum engineering with medicine, the work of the center stands to transform our understanding of health and disease.”
The Berggren Center will be housed within the University’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and draw on UChicago’s renowned strengths in quantum science, biomedical research, and clinical care. The center is founded on two core objectives:
- To drive the development of revolutionary quantum tools for biomedical applications; and
- To cultivate a new generation of “bilingual scholars” fluent in both disciplines — scientists and engineers capable of translating quantum advances into clinical solutions.
The gift will fund fellowships to train interdisciplinary scholars, seed technical development projects, and host global conferences to build an international community around quantum biology and medicine.
From the University of Notre Dame:
The Tech and Talent District, a keystone of the City of South Bend’s Downtown South Bend 2045 plan, has advanced a step closer to implementation via a partnership between the University of Notre Dame and Ancora to pursue the development of the first phase of the district.
Ancora is an investment management firm dedicated to supporting the mission and long-term goals of colleges and universities. Rising from the northeast corner of Colfax Avenue and Lafayette Boulevard, the district will sit at the intersection of research, industry, and community, revitalizing a once-vibrant corner of downtown while catalyzing job growth and advancing entrepreneurship in South Bend and the surrounding area.
The first phase of the project will revolve around the reimagining of the vacant former South Bend Tribune building, which, through adaptive reuse, will anchor the district along with a new research and office building at the northwest corner of Colfax and Main Street.
Notre Dame’s collaboration with Ancora marks another sign of progress for the Tech and Talent District after it received a $30 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. in August 2024 through its College and Community Collaboration initiative. The district will draw world-class research and talent to downtown South Bend, allowing for collaboration with industry to advance applied research in areas such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, and advanced computing.
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