Top White House adviser speaks at Discovery Lecture Series event

Rashid Bashir and John Marburger
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John Marburger III, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, outlined President Bush's initiative to bolster the federal government's efforts in science and technology learning and research.

The lecture, titled "The American Competitive Initiative: Leading the World in Innovation," was sponsored by Purdue's Discovery Park and the Lilly Endowment. The lecture was held in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse.

John Marburger

Several recent reports, including "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future" by the National Academies, have stressed the need for this nation to boost basic scientific research in the physical sciences and engineering and to train more math and science teachers.

During this year's State of the Union speech, President Bush announced he would double funding for the most critical research in those areas, an investment of $50 billion over the next decade.   

"President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative highlights the importance of investment in research, education and innovation in helping to keep our economy strong in the decades to come," Marburger said.

Alan Rebar

Marburger's visit to Purdue also included a tour of Discovery Park and the Purdue Research Park. Alan Rebar, executive director of Discovery Park, said Marburger's visit and lecture is especially timely to students, faculty, researchers and policy-makers in every corner of higher education.

"We believe Purdue's Discovery Park, which marks its anniversary this fall, is a model for U.S. universities to identify and mentor our next generation of innovators," he said. "We believe it's Purdue's interdisciplinary vehicle for reinventing this research institution for the 21st century."

Beverly Davenport Sypher

Beverly Davenport Sypher, interim director of the Discovery Learning Center in Discovery Park, points to reports showing that the number of engineers graduating from U.S. institutions has slipped 20 percent in recent years, and estimates are that the nation needs 10,000 more engineers than it is likely to produce in the next 10 years. More than half of the U.S. work force in the sciences and engineering also is approaching retirement age.

"Education and innovative learning programs that develop critical thinking skills and an interest in the sciences, engineering and mathematics in our youngest learner provide the foundation to solve this problem," said Sypher, whose center focuses on research and programs that advance learning in science, technology, engineering and math.

Before his appointment to the White House post in 2000, Marburger had been director of Brookhaven National Laboratory since 1998. He had served as president of the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island and as dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Marburger attended Princeton University, earning a bachelor's degree in physics and then received a doctoral degree in applied physics from Stanford University.

Discovery Park, which is located on the southwestern edge of Purdue's West Lafayette campus, is a $330 million hub for interdisciplinary research and is home to 10 primary centers focusing on everything from biosciences, nanotechnology and manufacturing to oncological sciences, homeland security and health-care engineering.

An initial Lilly Endowment grant of $26 million in 2001 provided support for the six original centers in Discovery Park: the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Bindley Bioscience Center, e-Enterprise Center, Discovery Learning Center and the Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

A second Lilly Endowment grant of $25 million in 2005 provided support for the Discovery Lecture Series as well as the seed funding for an additional four Purdue centers: the Energy Center, Center for the Environment, Cyber Center and the Oncological Sciences Center.

Lilly Endowment's second grant also included a $1 million endowment for a lecture series to bring prominent speakers to campus and earmarked endowed funds to be used in support of a Discovery Park student research internship program.

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Sources: John Marburger III, (202)-456-6098

Alan Rebar, (765) 496-6625, rebar@purdue.edu

Beverly Davenport Sypher, (765) 494-9709, bdsypher@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

A publication-quality photo is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2005/marburger-discovtour.jpg