Purdue University President Martin C. Jischke made these remarks Friday (Oct. 27) at Discovery Park during a visit by John Marburger III, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Purdue University Discovery Lecture Series

He will deliver a keynote address this afternoon as part of our Discovery Park Lecture Series sponsored by Lilly Endowment.

John is co-chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology Policy. I am a member of this council. I certainly enjoy working with him.

A number of the issues we are addressing on this council are also being addressed here at Discovery Park, which is a key component of our Strategic Plans.

Seven years ago, the Purdue University Board of Trustees undertook a thorough assessment of the university. What the board members discovered was not a surprise.

Purdue was in excellent shape, among the best and greatest universities in the nation and world. In fact, it was perfectly positioned to move forward to what has been called "the next level of excellence."

To accomplish this move to the next level, the board determined that the university needed plans and strategies.

These strategic plans would need to focus on Purdue's land-grant missions for learning, discovery and engagement.

I was recruited to Purdue to lead the university community in drafting and implementing Strategic Plans.

We identified seven key areas in which to invest our resources:

First, adding 300 faculty members, reducing reliance on teaching assistants.

Second, increasing the diversity of our campuses.

Third, expanding scholarships and financial aid to ensure that no talented student will be denied the opportunity to study at Purdue because of finances.

Fourth, offering competitive salaries so we can recruit and retain the best faculty and staff for our students and state.

Fifth, expanding our research capacity in visionary interdisciplinary initiatives.

Sixth, investing more than $600 million in modernization and expansion of our infrastructure.

And seventh, expanding our engagement efforts with Indiana, focusing on economic development and K-12 education.

Finally, we took the next essential step in the Strategic Planning process. We determined exactly how much this would cost and how we would pay for it.

We launched a $1.3 billion capital campaign that has been so successful that the goal has now been raised to $1.5 billion.

It is the largest educational capital campaign in the history of Indiana and among the largest by a public university.

One of the most exciting projects taking place at Purdue today as part of our Strategic Plans is Discovery Park, where we are meeting.

Discovery Park is a cluster of research centers designed to connect faculty and students from many disciplines on our campus. In fact, researchers from other universities and from industry.

Bringing everyone together into this interdisciplinary research area is fostering the discovery of new methods, new ideas, new technologies and new products.

The creation of Discovery Park is a transforming moment for Purdue.

Discovery Park is the centerpiece of our efforts to foster interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research and to fire our campus with a spirit of entrepreneurship.

Discovery Park is creating a synergy on campus.

It is leading the transformation of this institution into a new model for 21st century higher education and research.

Discovery Park was launched in 2001 with a $26 million grant from the Lilly Endowment and a $5 million investment from our state.

Today, Discovery Park is a $330 million interdisciplinary research and education engine.

One thousand of our faculty are involved in Discovery Park centers and research along with hundreds of our students.

Sixteen businesses have already been facilitated from Discovery Park.

We started with one building — we now have six completed, under construction or ready for ground breaking.

We started with one center — we now have 10 in addition to a special center for health care engineering.

And we're still growing!

In Discovery Park last fall, we opened our $58 million Birck Nanotechnology Center.

We are just at the dawn of this new, interdisciplinary science, which will drive the next great wave of technology.

Just as antibiotics, the silicon transistor, and plastics affected nearly every aspect of society in the second half of the 20th century — now nanoscale science, engineering, and technology will transform the 21st century.

The potential uses are limited only by our imaginations.

For example, nano-bioscience has already impacted and will impact even further our understanding of plant cells and cell walls and the interesting chemistry that occurs in these.

Manipulation of this chemistry will lead to easier production and higher yields of fuels.

In Discovery Park last fall, we also opened our $15 million Bindley Bioscience Center.

Our Bioscience Center forges interdisciplinary research between the life sciences and engineering.

Our agricultural scientists and botanists are using the proteomics and genomics facilities in Bindley Bioscience Center to impact energy biosciences.

We are building a $12 million e-Enterprise Center at Purdue.

Through our e-Enterprise initiative, we have launched an effort that addresses one of the most critical societal and economic issues facing our state and nation today: health care delivery.

Thanks to a grant from the Regenstrief Foundation, we are applying process-engineering principles, such as supply-chain management and just-in-time manufacturing, to health care delivery, following the flow of information, funds and materials through the system to achieve better results and efficiency.

In Discovery Park today, our $25 million biomedical engineering building is a partnership between our state and private donors.

We are also expanding our biomedical engineering school to the undergraduate level.

This is in direct response to the needs and potentials in our state.

At Discovery Park today, we have a Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

Researchers at this center are helping industry produce high-technology projects and use high technology in the manufacturing process.

It is helping American business compete in the global marketplace.

This year, we broke ground on a $10 million Discovery Learning Center. The Learning Center is a unique research center encompassing Discovery, Learning, and Engagement.

In 2004, we opened a key part of our efforts in Discovery Park.

It is the $7 million Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship to help move our discoveries into the economy, where they can create jobs, opportunities and revenue for communities and our state. The Entrepreneurship Center is creating a pipeline for our Purdue Research Park.

Ideas are explored in Discovery Park.

The best of these are formed into business plans in our Entrepreneurship Center.

They emerge as new companies in our Research Park.

Last year, a second $25 million grant from Lilly Endowment enabled us to launch four new centers in Discovery Park:

A Center for the Environment, an Oncological Sciences Center, a Cyber Center and an Energy Center.

It is an exciting time to be at Purdue. Indeed, I believe it is the most exciting time in our history. It is, perhaps, the most exciting time ever to be involved in research that will change the way we live and work.

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