Contact: Joe Farris
Mississippi State has reached the $100 million-a-year milestone in science and engineering research and development, a group of business and industry leaders were told Friday at a university celebration.
MSU conducted $100.4 million worth of research in fiscal year 1998 to rank 59th among American public universities, according to the latest report of the National Science Foundation.
That represents a dramatic increase from the previous year's $84 million total and 66th ranking, said President Malcolm Portera in opening the school's first-ever research summit.
Nearly 300 industry executives and university friends, including board members of Mississippi Technology Inc. and the university's External Research Advisory Committee, were among those attending what was billed as "Research at the People's University in the 21st Century: A Celebration of Achievement and Promise."
"Welcome to the beginning of a new era in research and development in Mississippi," Portera said. "And hold onto your seats: The pace is about to quicken."
He said the university's goals are to rank among the nation's top 50 public research universities while offering the region's preeminent program of undergraduate instruction. Research levels for 1999 just reported to the NSF show another significant gain to almost $111 million.
"A great strength of this university is that we know what we are," Portera said. "Even more important, we know what we want to be."
Keynote speaker James Flanagan, vice president for research at Rutgers University, called research universities a key component of America society. Such schools have a responsibility to work with industry to maintain national competitiveness and quality of life, he added.
Flanagan, 1996 winner of the National Medal of Science and a 1948 MSU graduate, said research universities are responsible for about half of the basic scientific research conducted in the country.
"Constant creation of new knowledge through intellectual inquiry and never-ending education of the next generation of our society will remain central to our progress," Flanagan said.
Increased use of the Internet and interactive technologies in the classroom are leading to a more independent, discovery-based style of learning that differs from the traditional lecture format, he said.
Throughout the afternoon program, participants heard MSU researchers give updates on major research initiatives in scientific agriculture, remote sensing, computational analysis, and social science research.