"This is even more exciting because this is one of our home-grown," Kieda said. "It's a great honor for the state of Utah, as well as the University of Utah."

Andres Villu Maricq, associate professor in the biology department, helped launch the new center less than a year ago. It will include physicists, biologists, chemists, experts in computerized informatics, mathematicians — all working together in one building.

"The next really great challenge in biology is to understand the information in the genome, to understand all the molecular processes that are needed to make a functioning cell," he said. That is, "how they're orchestrated."

The technology that Capecchi was instrumental in developing will be important to the new research, he said.

Capecchi's academic pull has already been at work, attracting talented people to the university. One of those is Maricq.

"He's one of the reasons I came to Utah," he said. He had been working as a post-doctorate fellow at the University of California at San Francisco and searching for an appointment elsewhere.

"I had a number of offers at places, including Princeton," he said. "And the University of Utah appealed to me in part because of what I had heard Mario say."

He knew of Capecchi's work on the knockout gene technology, which he found "incredibly impressive." But he did not know much about Utah. That changed when he talked with Capecchi.

"First of all, he said a lot of his work was really inspired by the location, that this was a place that you could really think and do great science." Maricq pressed Capecchi about what that meant.

The geneticist said the university provides both the intellectual space and the resources to do excellent science.

"That really struck me: that Utah was a place that had a culture that really promoted inquiry and creativity and not just me-too science."

That proved true, Maricq said, when he went to work at the U. "It absolutely is the case." The university has a "fantastic environment and fantastic science."

Many people there have turned down offers from Harvard, Yale or the California Institute of Technology to work at the U., he said. The university provides "a combination of great science and high desert splendor."

Those who know Capecchi paint a portrait of a fine scientist and person.

"He's charming, witty, quiet and intensely intellectual," Gesteland said.

Lawrence M. Okun, a biology professor at the U. who has known Capecchi since they were both at Harvard, said, "He's a very generous and democratic, intellectually honest person. ... He's just a terrific scientist and a terrific friend."

Sokolsky said he is thrilled for Capecchi.

"He's one of those guys it's just an absolute privilege to have on campus and to have work for the administration," he said.

He spoke with Capecchi on Friday, telling him that he is in awe of the work he's done. "He's such a humble guy, he just said, 'You know, the university's been very good to me,"' Sokolsky said.

"Well, we may have, but he's been ever better to us."

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com