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Attitude Change: Universities, once wary of industry, have formed more ties with firms as companies downsized their own labs
by Rick Mullin
August 5, 2013
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 91, Issue 31
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Credit: Library of Congress
Justin Smith Morrill, a Vermont congressman from 1867 to 1898, was a founder of the Republican Party.
Credit: Library of Congress
Justin Smith Morrill, a Vermont congressman from 1867 to 1898, was a founder of the Republican Party.
1862 Land-grant system is introduced
The Morrill Act establishes the funding of federal land-grant institutions to promote technical-oriented education and the commitment of scientific advances to the public.
1961 Eisenhower gives farewell address
COVER STORY
Attitude Change: Universities, once wary of industry, have formed more ties with firms as companies downsized their own labs
In an address memorable for the phrase “military-industrial complex,” the President warns of undue influence undermining the “free university.”
1969 “The Making of a Counter Culture” hits bookstores
Theodore Roszak’s book, published within weeks of the Woodstock music festival, defines the 1960s counterculture as a reaction to “technocracy,” the encroachment of business and commerce into social institutions.
1980 CUMIRP starts up
The Center for UMass/Industry Research on Polymers, a state-funded program to promote university-industry research partnerships, is formed.
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Credit: Newscom
Nobel Laureates John Bardeen (left), William Shockley (seated), and Walter Brattain conduct research that led to the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in 1947.
Credit: Newscom
Nobel Laureates John Bardeen (left), William Shockley (seated), and Walter Brattain conduct research that led to the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in 1947.
1984 AT&T breaks up
The breakup of the telephone monopoly signals the dismantling of Bell Laboratories, a template for large, commercial research labs.
1984 Industrial labs close
Recession-related cuts affect Tosco, Diamond Shamrock, and Ashland Chemical. Research departments are downsized steadily into the early 1990s, with cuts fueled by economic cycles and corporate restructuring.
1985 Exxon downsizes research
Exxon, which since the 1970s built a corporate research division to rival Bell Labs, makes big cuts at its laboratories.
1986 RCA Laboratories is dismantled
RCA, where research had been in decline for years, is acquired by General Electric, which breaks it up.
1993 Corporations are reengineered
“Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution,” by Michael M. Hammer and James A. Champy, is published. Business process reengineering accelerates R&D downsizing and outsourcing throughout the 1990s.
1994 Eastman Chemical splits from Eastman Kodak
The new chemical firm adapts a research approach that had been defined by its former parent company’s policy of doing work in-house. Kodak starts a decline that ends in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012.
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Credit: Novartis
Novartis makes maximum use of open space and architectural forms of nature throughout the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, in Cambridge, Mass.
Credit: Novartis
Novartis makes maximum use of open space and architectural forms of nature throughout the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, in Cambridge, Mass.
2002 Xerox cuts PARC
The business machine giant spins off its research division, marking another exit from fundamental R&D at a large corporation.
2003 Pharma comes to Cambridge
Novartis establishes R&D in the former New England Confectionery Co. candy factory, moving its locus of research from Switzerland to the Massachusetts hometown of MIT, Harvard University, and other academic powerhouses. Pfizer and AstraZeneca also ramp up research in the Cambridge/Boston area.
2007 BP inks deal with UC Berkeley …
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Credit: Harvard University
The Harvard University School of Engineering & Applied Sciences.
Credit: Harvard University
The Harvard University School of Engineering & Applied Sciences.
University of California, Berkeley, signs onto a $500 million research pact with BP that includes a flexible policy on intellectual property rights, forming the Energy Biosciences Institute. The contract becomes a template by which other schools begin allowing industrial partners the right to intellectual property.
2007 … and so does Dow Chemical
The Dow Chemical Co. Foundation gives $10 million over five years to support the Sustainable Products & Solutions Program at UC Berkeley.
2007 BASF goes to Harvard
The German chemical firm makes research landfall in the U.S., signing with Harvard on a five-year materials science collaboration.
Credit: Lisa Jarvis/C&EN
Scientists at Pfizer’s Boston CTI site have formed close ties with academics.
Credit: Lisa Jarvis/C&EN
Scientists at Pfizer’s Boston CTI site have formed close ties with academics.
2010 Pfizer advances academic links
Pharma giant launches an academic research network.Scientists at Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation, in Cambridge, Mass., have formed close ties with academics.
2011 Dow advances academic research
The company announces a $250 million investment in 11 universities over 10 years.Dow expects that its own scientists will benefit from university research.
2011 University of Massachusetts launches UMass Innovation Institute
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Credit: BASF
Michael F. Malone, UMass Amherst’s vice chancellor for research and engagement (from left); Christian Fischer, president of BASF Advanced Materials & Systems Research; Richard McCullough, Harvard’s vice provost for research; and Mary C. Boyce, head of MIT’s mechanical engineering department.
Credit: BASF
Michael F. Malone, UMass Amherst’s vice chancellor for research and engagement (from left); Christian Fischer, president of BASF Advanced Materials & Systems Research; Richard McCullough, Harvard’s vice provost for research; and Mary C. Boyce, head of MIT’s mechanical engineering department.
UMass Amherst launches a new industrial outreach initiative drawing on a 30-year-old program in polymer engineering.
2012 Google makes space for Cornell NYC Tech
Information technology giant gives Cornell University $10 million of office space in New York City.
2013 BASF renews North American Center for Research on Advanced Materials
BASF re-ups its five-year contract with Harvard, expanding the partnership to include UMass Amherst and MIT.
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
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