By
Mark S. Wrighton
Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry,
Washington University in St. Louis
Mark
S. Wrighton Chancellor, Washington University
in St. Louis |
|
Advances in science and technology have fueled the advance of
the United States as the world’s most powerful nation. Today,
we face global competition on many fronts, but we in Missouri
clearly have an opportunity to enhance our region through innovation
and entrepreneurship. Much of this promise stems from advances
in science and engineering. President Bush’s American Competitive
Initiative calls for an expanded investment in science and
engineering education and research. The World is Flat
by Thomas Friedman has also re-kindled America’s competitive
spirit by detailing the advances of other nations in their development
of the use of technology.
Missouri’s assets include institutions engaged in creating new
knowledge from which emerge new opportunities to bring benefit
to society. Research universities, such as the University of
Missouri, Saint Louis University, and Washington University,
are engaged in discovery science and knowledge creation. In
addition, research institutes like the Stowers Institute in
Kansas City and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in
St. Louis are developing as centers of knowledge creation in
the life and plant sciences. Moreover, we are fortunate to have
science- and technology-based companies in our state that have
a vital stake in the future and are also engaged in knowledge
creation that can benefit our society. St. Louis corporations
like Pfizer, Monsanto, Mallinckrodt Tyco Healthcare, Boeing,
Emerson, and Sigma-Aldrich have exciting research efforts that
yield new knowledge of value to their businesses leading to
products of economic and social value.
In connection with strengthening our region’s economy, research
universities have a far ranging responsibility to rapidly transfer
the results of scientific discovery to organizations that can
develop and commercialize a technology associated with a scientific
breakthrough. At Washington University, our efforts to bring
benefits to our community include working with mature, but growing
and innovative companies like Pfizer, Monsanto, Emerson, and
Boeing. For such companies, it is generally the case that intellectual
property created by University researchers and patented by the
University can be transferred through licensing agreements to
the companies that represent the best prospects for developing
and commercializing the research results. But we also work with
the community to spawn new companies based on new science that
sometimes represent the best path to advancing a technological
development of commercial and social importance. Companies like
Divergence at the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise or
Kereos at the Center for Emerging Technologies represent just
two examples of exciting new companies contributing to transferring
the results of research to benefit society.
INNOVATION STEMS
FROM STRONG SCIENCE AND STRONG PEOPLE
Technological innovation comes from strong science and engineering.
If such innovation is to grow here, we must work to secure the
largest and strongest science and engineering enterprise possible
in our universities, research institutes, and in the region’s
corporations. In St. Louis, we have major scientific strengths,
including plant science and agricultural biotechnology, bioenergy,
computer science, human biology, biomedical engineering, genomics
and biodefense, just to name a few.
Missouri certainly has much of the infrastructure needed for
technological innovation and entrepreneurship, but ultimate
success depends on people. It is not always appreciated that
advances in science come from the work of people. Often, just
a few people, or even single individuals, are associated with
a discoveries or innovations that lead to major technological
developments. The infrastructure needed and the breadth of opportunities
suggests that the region needs many talented people in a wide
range of fields—people educated and prepared to become engaged
in innovation and entrepreneurial activities. Business leaders,
venture capitalists, and lawyers, not just scientists and engineers,
are needed. This compelling need for the right people is fulfilled
uniquely by research universities. Universities attract talented
students, and the graduating students and postdoctoral researchers
leave with the “know-how and show-how” necessary to develop
new science in to new technologies.
To attract and retain the best people, our region needs the
best facilities and equipment along with the commitment to have
a high density of the highest-quality people. The best people
want to work with other talented people. St. Louis’ warm and
welcoming community, its cultural institutions, its low cost
of living and high quality of life are large positives in recruiting,
but they are all secondary factors in the decision talented
people make to come here. For the most outstanding scientists
and engineers, facilities, equipment, colleagues and financial
resources for research are the major factors in recruiting.
FUNDAMENTAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH: WE
NEED BOTH
While it is important to keep an eye on the practical consequences
of research and to be able to respond appropriately to a discovery
of technological importance, it is also important to support
basic research that has no immediate practical application.
It was just about a century ago that chemists and physicists
were coming to understand the electronic structure of atoms
and molecules. Who could have foretold that such understanding
would lead to the development of lasers having applications
ranging from cash register scanning to cutting tools, eye surgery,
and even CD and DVD players? Research in general, and especially
research at universities where research and education go hand-in-hand,
is not always a straightforward path to a discovery. Indeed,
some of the most celebrated discoveries were completely unanticipated
and required special creativity on the part of the researcher
to be able to realize the importance of what was observed!
The federal government is the largest and most important source
of support for research at universities and this investment
needs to be enhanced. There is a growing awareness of this imperative.
But as fundamental research progresses and predicts the course
of applied research, universities and companies often develop
research relationships that can bring benefit to both entities.
Typically, companies provide the financial resources for a research
program and the university provides people and infrastructure
for the research. The partnership with a company enhances the
educational opportunity for students by acquainting them with
key problem areas where scientific breakthroughs can make a
difference. In some cases a company wants to support fundamental
research to define what is possible, and in other cases the
research is applied and directly assists the company on its
path to technological development and commercialization. Supporting
existing companies and assisting the development of new ones
is a compelling responsibility for our research universities
and institutes. Universities serve the unique role of preparing
people for creative work, and all research activities need them.
Encouraging more of our talented graduates to remain in our
region is a compelling objective. Exciting opportunities to
develop new technologies in corporations will contribute to
keeping them, and our efforts to encourage corporate research
and development will bring major dividends.
A FUTURE OF ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
If we are to grow and prosper as a community, St. Louis’ business,
higher education and research communities must work more effectively
with each other. Science and engineering research represents
an enormously rewarding investment that has proven to lead to
economic prosperity. Economic prosperity is critical to sustaining
the region’s strength in cultural and recreational resources,
because without profits, our corporations will not be able to
provide the philanthropic support needed for exceptionally fine
institutions we enjoy in the region. Expanding employment opportunities
for all in our region depends on strengthening the region’s
competitiveness and innovation. Creating new, high quality jobs
in our region will come from new enterprises, many of which
can come from advances in science. The creation of a stronger
culture of scientific innovation, technology transfer, entrepreneurship
and an appreciation for the role of basic research will serve
Missouri well. None of this is easy, but all of this is possible.
It is time for the “Show Me State” to show its stuff and fulfill
its potential as a leading region of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Boeing, Pfizer, Monsanto, Emerson, Sigma-Aldrich, and MEMC illustrate
well the important role science and technology are already playing
in our region and in the world. Our region has much more potential
and our future depends on realizing it. Realization of the promise
of our region can sustain America’s leadership in innovation
and service to society.
