A cutting-edge $5 million nanotechnology center could be headed for the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, announced Thursday.

The U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee authorized the Rio Grande Valley Nanotech Institute Center for Excellence as part of a $550.4 billion defense budget. If the defense budget passes through the House and Senate, South Texans can expect the center to begin design and construction in the fall. Ortiz expects that funding for the nanotechnology center will make it through Congress.

"We have a lot of talent in this area," Ortiz said. "We have young kids who want to become scientists, but who may have never displayed their talent before because they were never given the opportunity."

Jim Holt, associate vice president for economic development and dean for workforce training at UTB-TSC, said a nanotechnology center would bring new minds and companies to the area.

"Nanotechnology redesigns things from the molecular level," Holt said. "We are able to create new materials, which is very important for aerospace engineering and other cutting-edge fields."

The nanotechnology center would be located in UTB-TSC's International, Technology, Education, and Commerce Center. The facility would include central laboratories for university research, plus facilities where new companies could operate and create marketable applications for the inventions the nanotechnology center creates.

According to Holt, UTB-TSC has already received more than $17 million in grants related to nanotechnology in the past five years, but without a sophisticated laboratory, the school will never be able to qualify for more substantial federal grants.

"We don't yet have the right infrastructure in place to take us to the next level," Holt said.

Ortiz says he hopes UTB-TSC will soon have the tools to set them apart.

"This is only laying the foundation for us to continue to grow," Ortiz said.