USM sees improved research infrastructure

The University of Southern Maine is working hard to expand economic opportunities in Maine through university-based research and development. R&D funds provided by the Maine Legislature have played the critical role in providing a better research infrastructure.

Support for improved research facilities, for example, has allowed USM professor of molecular biology Monroe Duboise to win grants – just awarded earlier this year – of more than $1.5 million from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Those funds in-clude support for a biotechnology outreach program for rural and underfunded high schools in Maine. This outreach program will send USM molecular biology graduate students to work with teachers and students in these high schools, giving students access to cutting-edge science and lab resources, and raising educational aspirations.

This innovative program will have a real-world impact on science in Maine and move the state’s R&D efforts forward. Professor Duboise, who was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School before coming to USM in 1997, conducts analyses of viruses that infect cells of the immune system and lead to such diseases as mononucleosis and fatal cancers.

A $500,000 renovation of USM’s Department of Engineering labs supports the research of Professor Mustafa Guvench, who works with students and local industry to test the designs of computer chips and experiment with such newer technologies as the micromachining of silicon.

Moreover, these faculty are working with students who will become the highly trained employees needed by our state’s industries, particularly those in the information sciences and the emerging biotechnology sector. According to 1998 figures, Maine’s biotech industry – to cite one emerging sector of our economy- employs more than 4,700 Mainers, at an average salary of $35,000.

Earlier this legislative session, a USM electrical engineering major, Julie Stultz of Windham, testified before the Education Committee. Julie, who has worked at Fairchild Semiconductor as a co-op student, told the committee that Fairchild is interested in using USM students to help develop technical projects.

“This will be beneficial to the students as a means of learning,” she said, “and to the company as a means of revenue. The technology industry is Maine is rapidly progressing,” she said. “As a student, I wish to see the area universities progressing at the same rate.” Upon graduation this May, Julie will begin work at Fairchild as a full-time circuit design engineer.

With existing monies, we will be hiring a bioscientist, supporting our existing hires, providing research support and graduate student fellowships.. We plan to break ground later this year on a Biosciences Research Institute, and planning is underway for facilities dedicated to information sciences.

Establishment of the institutes is part of USM’s effort to work with research partners so that we strategically use public investments in research and development to grow the state’s economy.

And we also need to ramp up our programs in support of R&D. The Department of Technology a has developed a new concentration in information and communications technology to accommodate the significant changes that are occurring in this field. The University of Maine School of Law, which is based at USM, is home to the new Technology Law Center. In addition to offering courses in intellectual property and technology law, the center will host national conferences on major issues in e-commerce, technology and intellectual property law.

The center also is home to the newly established Maine Patent Program, which will offer workshops and technical assistance to help Maine companies and entrepreneurs with the U.S. patent process.

Despite our progress, much remains to be done. Business and community leaders continue to note gaps between what the region requires and the current capacity of USM. Those gaps are especially evident in the sciences, in technology as well as in other professional and research programs targeted to the growing requirements of our regional economy and expanding knowledge-based businesses.

USM economist Charles Colgan, a former Maine state economist, and chair of the Maine Economic Forecasting Commission, has written that, “Technologies of the past like ships and paper needed both skills and the right location. The new technologies require much more extensive, and expensive, knowledge but they can be developed and can create new jobs anywhere. Maine’s only disadvantage in participating in these industries will be our unwillingness to make the necessary investments in new knowledge.”

We look forward to working with our partners in the University of Maine System and in the private sector. Our ultimate goal is to convert the innovations generated through research and development into new economic and educational opportunities for the people of Maine.

Richard L. Pattenaude is president of the University of Southern Maine.