Up Front | President's Column

March 2000: Vol. 79, No. 2

Maintaining an environment of wonder

Adams
Michael F. Adams

ne of the most critical functions the University of Georgia performs is the creation of new knowledge through an extensive program of research and scholarship into an astounding range of topics. At the most basic level, we are about the business of asking, "Why?"—and then seeking the answers. It is crucial that we maintain an environment of wonder that encourages inquiry and investigation, for from the questions come the answers that create new knowledge and solve the world's problems.

We must always balance that sense of wonder with an understanding that, as a public university using tax dollars, we have a responsibility to perform research that is or could be applicable. Most federal grants for research require an explanation of the relevance of the project. Must we know the direct applicability of a particular research project before we proceed with it? No. Some of the greatest discoveries in the annals of science and other disciplines had an element of serendipity about them.

Consider the case of Alexander Fleming, the British physician and 1945 Nobel laureate. While researching the influenza virus in 1928, he noticed that a culture of the bacterium that causes strep throat had been contaminated by a greenish mold and that none of the strep culture was growing in a circle around the mold. That mold, as we now know, was penicillin. Fleming observed, asked questions and sought answers, and medicine was changed forever with the introduction of antibiotics.

We, too, must be prepared to ask the right questions and follow the appropriate procedures so that research done on behalf of the University of Georgia and the people of this state will provide a return on the enormous investment made in UGA.

Graduate student Jonathan Thomas prepares a liquid cell culture in a fermentation lab in the Life Sciences complex, which provides micro-organisms for use by University researchers.

As a land-grant institution, we are charged with conducting research that is of service to the state, the nation and, indeed, the world. We engage in research on topics ranging from coastal salt marshes to alcoholism to genomics. We then connect what we've learned with the needs of the people through our commitment to public service.

Also, in a very real sense, research is self-funding, supported by a variety of both private and public sponsors. During the 1998-99 academic year, we received $231 million in funding for research. UGA research also generates patent revenue and royalties. During the 1998 fiscal year, UGA earned $3.4 million in patent income from its research, ranking ahead of Georgia Tech, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and Penn State.

On a statewide level, we participate in the Georgia Research Alliance, including the Eminent Scholars program, which provides matching funds to recruit and hire top researchers in targeted fields. The Wall Street Journal has called this program the new definition of economic competition among states — competing for minds as well as manufacturers.

A diverse and vibrant research program pays benefits for our students as well. In demonstrating the process for creating new knowledge, we model for our students an important element of the educational process: learning how to learn. From faculty engaged in research, our graduate students—and, increasingly, our undergraduate students—learn how to ask the right questions, to observe the unexpected and to discern the value of experimental results. The biology or chemistry laboratory then becomes a life laboratory, where our students learn hands-on lessons that will last a lifetime.

At a time when this university is under great pressure and intense scrutiny from all our constituencies, our ability to conduct research that is responsive to the needs of society is critical. As we face questions from legislators, governors, business leaders, funding organizations, the citizens of this state and others, it is good to be able to say, "Here's what we're doing to help."

Virtually everything that our students are studying today was once a question in the mind of a researcher. Virtually every medicine prescribed today was once an experimental cure in a lab. Virtually every technological device we use in our daily lives was once an inspired thought. We have the responsibility, then, to continue to ask the questions that will become the knowledge base for the future. I am committed to a campus that insures those questions are asked.