Purdue President France A. Córdova made these comments on Thursday (March 6) to the Economic Club of Indianapolis
Purdue president speaks to Economic Club about the 'global university' for Indiana
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The Economic Club of Indianapolis is an important forum in which to discuss today's leading issues. It's an honor for me to be here talking about higher education and what Purdue University can do, not only for our students, but also for Indianapolis, our state of Indiana, our nation and world.
I'm pleased to be joined here today by a group of Purdue faculty and staff along with some of our Indianapolis alumni and major supporters. Also with us is the chairman of our Purdue Board of Trustees, Tim McGinley of Indianapolis. It's a great pleasure to work with him and all of our fine trustees.
Purdue has tremendous support from Governor Mitch Daniels, Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman and our General Assembly. I want to thank all of them for promoting education in Indiana. I'd also like to thank all of you in the audience who have supported Purdue in so many ways: sponsorships, gifts, advice, partnerships - and by sending us your children and grandchildren, whom we treasure as our students!
Indiana University President Michael McRobbie spoke here in December, eloquently describing his goals and plans for IU. As new presidents of our state's two leading research university systems, Michael and I are working closely to expand our partnerships in meaningful ways. Going forward, we want to make a difference for Indiana and we believe that working together will bring great benefits to our state. We are interested in working closely with everyone in Indiana higher education.
Higher education has remarkable opportunities to bring about wide public benefit. It can give individuals increased skills for personal advancement; it can provide new knowledge that can benefit nearly all sectors of public life, including economic vitality, culture, public policy, health, and security. Higher education is at a time and a place in which new ideas can be vetted openly and new dreams can be launched, new leaders inspired.
Whatever we do to improve the education of young people today will be paid back many times over in the years ahead. There is no better evidence of this than the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of World War II - called the G.I. Bill of Rights. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law on June 22, 1944, weeks after the Allied D-Day invasion. Total victory was far from assured. The pressures on our national budget were enormous.
But in that uncertain moment, our government invested in the future of our young people and in the future of America by making it possible for returning veterans to earn a college education.
The impact of that investment on the last 50 years of the 20th century was a period of technological advancement and economic progress unlike any other in human history.
Last weekend I met Harry Williams, Purdue Class of 1959, College of Science. Harry entered Purdue with a fistful of GI Bill dollars, and graduated cum laude four years later, all the time working an eight-hour swing shift as a clerk at the Lafayette railroad station. He said that he owed everything to Purdue, but really, it was a partnership of the federal government with universities that made it possible for him receive a college degree.
Purdue was created out of another of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation in this country's history: the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862.
The Morrill Land Grant Act set the United States on a course to be the world leader in higher education. Before the Morrill Act, higher education in this country, as it was throughout the world, was mostly the privilege of the wealthy and elite. Universities were too often towers of philosophical inquiry quite separate from the problems and needs of society.
The Morrill Act was an agenda for America that changed that education model. It provided states with the means to create universities to teach agriculture and "the mechanic arts."
It opened the opportunity of higher education to people throughout our nation. And as these universities brought new knowledge out of the laboratories and into farming communities across the countryside, American agriculture developed into the most productive food system in the world.
In the twentieth century, the land-grant university, like other universities, was imprinted with a research mission, a legacy of engineer and policymaker Vannevar Bush, who in 1945 wrote to the president of the United States a report called Science: the Endless Frontier. It was the document that galvanized the federal government to invest in university-based scientific research.
Research universities have produced top medical schools, assisted manufacturing through the development of innovative tools and new materials, fueled the rocket age with new talent, and discovered the molecular structure of the building blocks of life.
Now, in the 21st century, the nation's research universities continue life-changing advancements including work in genomics, proteomics, nanotechnology, information science, and bionics.
With all that has been accomplished, today we live in a much different world from 1862 when the Land Grant Act was passed. In 1862, the population of the United States was 31 million. Today, it is ten times larger. In 1862, 60 percent of all jobs were directly connected to agriculture. Today, that number is less than 2 percent. In 1860, 80 percent of the U.S. population was rural. Today, 80 percent lives in urban areas.
In 1862 the world was a large place; parts of it were still unexplored, and just reaching from the United States to Europe could take weeks. Today, it takes hours.
New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman writes of the "flat world" that we live in today, leveled by the speed of transportation and communications technology; a world where the United States is facing tremendous competition for its position as the leader in innovation.
This new century and the rapid change we see all around us require a new model for land-grant research universities. To meet the challenges of our times and the needs and opportunities of our state, Purdue must become a global university for Indiana.
Purdue must continue with everything it has been doing for Indiana. It should provide:
* More innovative learning opportunities for our students and more engagement with public preschool through grade 12 education, including attracting more young people to careers in science, engineering, technology and math.
* More company assists, such as the work of our Technical Assistance Program, which since 1986 has trained more than 4,600 Indiana employees, boosted sales of Indiana companies by $351 million, and saved or added more than 4,600 Indiana jobs.
* More company partnerships, such as those we have formed with Cummins, Caterpillar, Eli Lilly and Rolls-Royce.
* More technology degree programs, such as Purdue Statewide Technology, which is being delivered in communities throughout the state.
* More and faster technology transfer from our laboratories to the marketplace such as we are now preparing to effect through our Discovery Park Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Development, which is privately endowed with $100 million.
It is important for the future of our state that Purdue continue this agenda for Indiana and do much more: it must also serve as a hub for global innovation and global collaboration. We have the opportunity as never before to link our business enterprises to a worldwide network of strategic partners for Indiana and to ensure that our students have global credentials.
Today, businessmen and researchers in India, Hong Kong, Korea, Mumbai, and more can visit Purdue on the Internet as easily as they can pour themselves a cup of chai.
Purdue's enhanced role as a global hub directly helps the enterprises in this state by opening new markets, attracting new talent and helping match global partners to address large-scale challenges and access new opportunities.
Let me give you an example of how the world has changed in real time. Several years ago, our News Service put out a release about a Purdue-discovered technology, called SIS (Small-Intestine Submucosa), being developed and marketed by Cook Biotech in our Research Park.
SIS transforms a portion of pig small intestine into strong, sterile, pliable sheets that work as a scaffold to facilitate the growth of new tissue.
That news release went out at 9 a.m. By noon we received a call from the BBC in London seeking more information. Two hours later, we received a call from a physician in Albania who had heard the BBC news story and wanted to use SIS immediately to save a little girl with severe burns. It is indeed a small world.
Our accomplishments at Purdue have a long reach. SIS technology has been used successfully on more than 500,000 patients in more than 25 countries, including a little girl in Albania.
Purdue is already a global university, although we have much farther to go and many more benchmarks to meet.
Purdue's Krannert School of Management international executive MBA degree program placed 11th worldwide in rankings by the Financial Times last October. Purdue Management has many strong international programs and partnerships that are good for our students and good for Indiana.
Purdue enrolls nearly 5,000 international graduate and undergraduate students; this enrollment ranks third in the nation.
These are some of the most talented young people in the world. While on our campus, they interact with our Indiana and U.S. students, helping create global awareness and understanding. This global experience will be vital to the business community of our state in the years ahead.
Our international students who graduate and return to their home countries have positive images of Indiana and the United States and form partnerships with Indiana businesses and industries throughout their careers. Purdue alumni in China, Taiwan, Korea, India and Europe have ties to Indiana that are being used to promote our state as a leader in international trade. Some of our international students become leading government officials in their homelands.
Many other Purdue international students remain here, providing the educated people we need to power a transformation in information technology, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing in Indiana and our nation. They teach, they work, they start businesses here.
We are working to increase the number of U.S. students at Purdue who take part in all types of international experiences, especially formal learning experiences abroad directly related to their profession. After spring break next week, our College of Engineering will have had 193 students in foreign universities this year. The percentage of Purdue Engineering students in study abroad is twice the national average and is growing at four times the national rate.
Here is one example of how global programs at Purdue can affect the lives of our students and help Indiana companies, such as Cummins, compete in the worldwide marketplace.
Stephanie Faber-Severance has a Purdue degree in mechanical engineering. As an undergraduate, she learned Mandarin Chinese and spent a semester and a summer in China as part of a Purdue program studying at Shanghai Jiao Tong University while interning for Cummins in China. She worked with Shanghai students for two semesters of face-to-face global design team project work.
Today she works full time as a product development engineer for Cummins. In only her second year on the job, she leads two project teams of engineers from the U.S. and China designing new fuel systems that will be used first in the Chinese markets, and then in expanded global markets. She already has filed five patent applications.
Cummins is only one example of an Indiana company with a wide global footprint.
Our state is a major player in the global marketplace. Indiana is the 12th-largest exporting state in the nation, according to February 2008 data reported by the Office of Trade and Industry Information, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The report states that Indiana exported $26 billion worth of goods during 2007.
Here are more facts from that report:
* Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for 7.1 percent of Indiana's total private-sector employment.
* More than 18 percent of all Indiana manufacturing jobs depend on exports.
* A total of 5,300 companies exported goods from Indiana in 2005. Of those, 84 percent were small and medium-sized enterprises, with fewer than 500 employees.
* In 2005, foreign-controlled companies employed 139,900 workers in Indiana.
Purdue is involved in all of this. Here are the top 10 exports in Indiana and examples of what Purdue is doing to assist our industries:
* First, vehicles and parts: Purdue's Center for Advanced Manufacturing is working with automaker suppliers to improve processes and products and keep them competitive. Purdue has ties to Subaru of Indiana.
* Second, industrial machining: Purdue has major research efforts , such as our Center for Laser-based Manufacturing in the School of Mechanical Engineering, working with companies such as Caterpillar and Cummins to improve their products; research examples include product optimization, heat control, materials, and the design, friction, wear and lubrication of interacting surfaces.
* Third, electrical machining and electronics: Delphi Corp. is a global leader in electric/electronic products for the automotive industry, and Purdue is working with the company on new micro-cooling techniques.
* Fourth, pharmaceutical products: Purdue is a leader in pharmaceutical processing and formulation, and we have partnerships with these industries in our state.
* Fifth, organic chemicals: Purdue has a long relationship with the former Great Lakes Chemical Co., now Chemtura. Most recently, one of our chemistry faculty made significant advances for their organic fluorine product.
* Sixth, optical and medical instruments: Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and our Chemistry Department have made many discoveries that have led to new medical devices and new companies for Indiana.
* Seventh, plastics: Purdue has excellent capabilities in polymer rheology and material. Purdue research has led to better adhesives and optical wear.
* Eighth, iron and steel: Purdue recently worked on improvements for furnace operations and product movement in this industry.
* Ninth, miscellaneous chemicals: Purdue's chemical engineering department is a leader in co-op internships in our state, helping companies and training the next generation of workers.
* And 10th, aluminum: Purdue has excellent ties with the major Alcoa operation in Lafayette, and our School of Materials Engineering is gaining international recognition in new materials.
We're doing all of this - and we're also having a great basketball season, too - minus a couple of blips. But we'll be back strong this weekend and in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments!
The Boilermakers are rolling in learning, discovery, engagement - and hoops!
I digress ... Back to our roots: our state ranks 10th in the nation with more than $2 billion in agricultural exports. As a worldwide leader, Purdue Agriculture is deeply involved with every sector of this field in our state. Our Extension program works with every county, every township, and every farm in Indiana.
Our College of Agriculture has a strong global focus. Twenty-five percent of our students in Agriculture study abroad.
Purdue Professor Dr. Phillip Nelson received the 2007 World Food Prize for his work in aseptic processing, developing the "bag in a box" technology to process large quantities of seasonal crops, such as tomatoes and oranges, for long-term storage and bulk transportation. This is considered the Nobel Prize in Agriculture.
Purdue and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are partners in Africa. The foundation has awarded $11.4 million to Purdue to help people in 10 African nations safely store cowpeas, an important food and cash crop, protecting them from weevils. Purdue Agriculture is helping rebuild the educational capacity in Afghanistan. A Purdue researcher in biomedical engineering and veterinary medicine has introduced a new low-cost technology that will make it possible to perform affordable, widespread medical testing for millions of AIDS victims in Africa.
Hunger, lack of education and disease are all global issues, and if we do not address them today, we will bear global consequences tomorrow.
Purdue owns or manages several commercial research parks that run the length of Indiana, promising new jobs and economic benefits for our state.
The Purdue Technology Center in our West Lafayette research park has nearly 150 companies employing nearly 3,000 people with an average wage of $58,000 per year.
This is a global research park. In our Purdue Research Foundation buildings there are 62 foreign-born employees. Cook Biotech in our research park sells worldwide. Forty-five percent of Griffin Analytical sales come from foreign companies. BASi has 25 foreign-born employees.
Delegations from South America, Singapore, Australia, Korea, China, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Japan and Thailand have visited our research park.
Last month, Governor Mitch Daniels was in West Lafayette to announce that global technology giant EDS plans to locate its national software solution center at Purdue Research Park, creating more than 200 software engineer and business analyst positions by 2010.
Another example of Purdue's global reach is Purdue's technology commercialization program. Over the past 10 years, Purdue Research Foundation patent applications in foreign jurisdictions have led to 408 patents issued and 412 pending patent applications.
The Purdue Research Foundation has license agreements with 105 non-U.S. based companies. Over the last 10 years, these licenses have generated nearly $10 million for Purdue.
The Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana in Merrillville opened in December of 2004, and it also has a global focus as it strengthens the economy of northern Indiana. It is already home to 19 companies with an average employee wage of $52,000. These are companies like Nesch, LLC, which is developing technology that will be used for mammograms and other soft tissue imaging applications.
Ivan Nesch moved his company from Chicago to be part of our technology center. Born in Bulgaria, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Moscow and immigrated to the United States in the 1990s to pursue his opportunities.
Construction is beginning on the Purdue Technology Center for Indianapolis, located on I-70 near the entrance to the airport's new midfield terminal. This 78-acre development is expected to grow to 75 companies, creating 1,500 jobs.
The Purdue Technology Center of Southeast Indiana will open this fall with a learning center, a business incubator, four new Purdue bachelor degree offerings and more.
In a global focus that also benefits Indiana, last December the Purdue Chao Center for Industrial Pharmacy and Contract Manufacturing at our research park in West Lafayette began filling orders as the sole North American provider of Seromycin, a life-saving antibiotic to treat multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis.
This partnership with Eli Lilly is part of a global humanitarian effort to produce and manufacture a drug needed in smaller quantities that can't be produced in a cost-effective way by larger pharmaceutical companies.
Another important component to the agreement is that it enables our Purdue pharmaceutical students to learn how to produce drugs under the strict guidelines set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
This is very valuable training for our students, helping them to become even better prepared to contribute to this important sector of Indiana's economy immediately after graduation.
The man who made this possible with a $5 million gift is alumnus Allen Chao, a native of Taiwan who used his Purdue education to create a U.S. pharmaceutical company.
Discovery Park, Purdue's multidisciplinary research complex, was launched in August 2001. We are grateful to the Lilly Endowment for $51 million in startup funding, without which we could not have launched this remarkable enterprise. Some of Discovery Park's successes since its inception include:
* Seeding or assisting 21 startup companies, creating 165 jobs.
* One hundred forty licenses or options on intellectual property created within Discovery Park.
* Generating more than $223 million in external funding, including $54 million in 2006-07.
* Engaging more than 100 companies in the 10 centers making up Discovery Park.
* Engaging more than 3,000 students, including undergraduates earning a credential in innovation and entrepreneurship. Some students in this program traveled to South Korea to learn about doing business with that large economy. Truly, Discovery Park is generating the innovators of the future!
In Discovery Park, our Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering is addressing health care delivery issues throughout Indiana and on a national scale. It is funded by the Regenstrief Foundation, here in Indianapolis. Also in Discovery Park, the Network for Computational Nanotechnology has received $18 million in funding from the National Science Foundation to advance this emerging field.
Now as we address our new Strategic Plans, Discovery Park is perfectly positioned to make Global Purdue one of the preferred U.S. institutions for research and educational collaborations. As a unique, interdisciplinary research, learning and engagement complex, Discovery Park has the opportunity not only to advance our state, but also to help Purdue define the 21st century global, land-grant, research university.
We have a number of Discovery Park partnerships in China, including the Center for Entrepreneurship Study Abroad with Tsinghua University. We have a Discovery Park partnership with the Korean Institute of Science and Technology.
Our global efforts are campus-wide. Purdue has more than 1,000 students from India studying on our West Lafayette campus and about 90 faculty and administrators are of Indian origin. Purdue has strong ties to India, and our strategy is to expand our research network there.
We are also working to build partnerships in the Middle East, where we need to create better understanding among people and cultures in addition to linking to that important economy.
There is much more happening at Global Purdue to benefit Indiana. A vital, new global approach for Purdue will emerge through our new six-year Strategic Plan, which is in the final stages of preparation by our faculty, staff and students. Many community and statewide groups have taken part in this process. Purdue's Strategic Plan has important components focused on globalization and economic development of our state.
Having spent most of my life in California, I saw how areas such as Silicon Valley and the Biotechnology Corridor were created in the vicinity of major research universities, which partnered with the state. The enterprises thrived economically with global partnerships and investments. Purdue, partnering with our state of Indiana, is positioned to spawn similar globally attractive enterprises.
Purdue's footprints are on the moon, left there by our students who graduated to become citizens of a larger world. They returned new knowledge. Now Purdue is continuing this legacy, creating new footprints globally, and this can return huge benefits to our great state.
Thank you and all hail from old Purdue.
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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