DRIVING FORCE: OHIO STATE RESEARCHERS FUELING OHIO'S ECONOMY
Ohio State bioengineer Jeffrey Chalmers is one of the university's top researchers.
By SHERRY BECK PAPROCKI
Jeffrey Chalmers, one of Ohio State's top bioengineers, is sipping from a purple Juicy Juice box and scrolling through colorful photographs of cancerous cells on his laptop computer, photos that are possible in part because of a device he and his research team created.
Stars such as Chalmers attract big federal, state, and industry dollars to the university to fund projects designed to move science and technology forward.
In his cluttered third-floor office in the aging Koffolt Laboratories, Chalmers shows off a handful of cylindrical plastic and steel instruments. The patented devices are inserted into magnetic casings to separate rare cancer cells from other cells circulating in the blood, among other uses. The resulting color images help doctors see the cells more clearly.
Chalmers explains that clinical trials are under way at Ohio State's Medical Center to test the instruments' ability to detect head, neck, breast, and potentially other cancers. Soon, other clinical trials should be established around the country.
"This is relatively simple technology," he says of the device he's been perfecting for the last decade and a half. "We're driven by making it simple and easy to use."
RIPPLE EFFECT
President E. Gordon Gee often describes Ohio State as the economic engine for Ohio.
"We are the driving force to turn the Rust Belt into the knowledge belt," he said in an interview in June, just three days before he was due to shake hands with thousands of graduating students at the spring quarter commencement ceremony. "The university has become the leading edge of the new economy."
Chalmers's research, including its economic ripple effect, is an example of what Gee is talking about when he claims the university generates an annual statewide impact of more than $4 billion, using figures from a study released in 2006.
If what Gee says about an economic engine is true, then the energetic Chalmers is one of the turbochargers within that engine. He has his hand in five or six projects. The separation instruments alone have earned eight patents shared with collaborators at the Cleveland Clinic, and paperwork has been filed for a couple more.
Chalmers's research is funded in part with a $22.5 million grant that came from the state of Ohio in 2005 through the Third Frontier Foundation. The foundation, part of the Ohio Department of Development, was created in 2002 with $1.6 billion in funding and the goal of establishing the state as a leader in innovation.
With his Third Frontier funding, Chalmers realizes he is working not only to create new research tools, but to carry out their commercialization in Ohio to create more jobs.
Projects such as Chalmers's separation devices are among those whose financial statistics are carefully scrutinized by both grantees and grantors. "The easiest way to quantitate the research being done at Ohio State is in dollars and cents," said Carol Whitacre, vice president of research.
JOBS AND MORE JOBS
Chalmers's work is part of the Center for Multifunctional Polymer Nanomaterials and Devices (CMPND), an Ohio State-led consortium developed in 2005 with Third Frontier funding.
Like much else happening at Ohio State, the CMPND is a partnership that goes outside the walls of the university, in this case to oversee studies involving new uses for plastics. Kent State, Wright State, and the universities of Akron, Dayton, and Toledo are participating, along with more than 60 large and small companies in Ohio.
In the four years the CMPND has existed, some 170 jobs have been created, with an average salary of at least $65,000. That adds up to $10.9 million in annual salaries that has an impact on Ohio's economy. In fact, polymers is a $49 billion industry in the state and employs 144,000 people.
In persuading partners to create the CMPND, co-director Sharell Mikesell continually pointed out that the state's 10,000 manufacturing businesses-not the big ones, but those under $1 billion-need to be reinvented for tomorrow's economy. Ohio State helps the effort by encouraging the businesses to build updated facilities and create new manufacturing product lines, Mikesell said.
Ohio State's impact might be even greater than the $4 billion that Gee quotes. In a statewide study released last year, the university's medical complex alone was determined to contribute $11.4 billion to Ohio's economy, nearly twice as much as any of the state's six other medical schools.
Gee also frequently points out that the university partners with more than 240 Ohio-based businesses.
In fact, Ohio State is second only to Duke University in the amount of grant dollars coming in specifically from industry partners. In 2007, the latest figures available, the university received slightly more than $142 million. Duke got just over $181 million, according to the National Science Foundation.
"Thanks to President Gee and his colleagues, we have leaders who are finding creative ways to move our universities into centers of excellence and research centers to make Ohio competitive in the country and in the world," said Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, in a keynote address last spring.
In the greater Columbus area, Ohio State, with more than 21,100 employees, is the second largest employer next to the state itself. "Ohio State is a really important economic driver for us," said Bill LaFayette, vice president of economic analysis for the Columbus Chamber. "Ohio State is unique in that it is not only an employer, but it also supports other enterprises and businesses and activities in the community."
Robert Grevey, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Development, agrees. The university's Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging, a 26,000-square-foot out-patient and research facility, is "a really good example of how Ohio State is working to create jobs," he said.
To date, the Wright Center has generated nearly 300 jobs and nine separate companies.
Meanwhile, the Science and Technology Campus Corp. has been created as a not-for-profit research park on west campus. Tenants include some that are directly linked to Ohio State, such as Nanotech West, an organization that oversees partnerships with industry and other universities.
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS
Unlike with scientific research, the results of some partnerships aren't easily quantifiable. Cheryl Achterberg, dean of the College of Education and Human Ecology, said teachers affect Ohio's economic well-being in "a little more indirect ways."
The majority of the college's 180 faculty members on main campus and the five regional campuses are involved in community outreach projects. One prominent program is math coaching, during which professors work with third- and fifth-grade teachers to improve the way math is taught. The result? Test scores in participating schools have nearly doubled.
The average first-year salary of a teacher educated at Ohio State--$35,676--in itself contributes to Ohio's economy. And 80 to 90 percent of the college's alumni remain in the state, Achterberg said.
Joyce Beatty, Ohio State's vice president of outreach and engagement, meets regularly with Columbus mayor Michael Coleman. She recently approached Coleman about partnering to get a federal stimulus grant. She has collaborated with Columbus public schools superintendent Gene Harris to start a program to put more bilingual teachers in classrooms. "You are always reaching out to people," Beatty said.
In July, Gregory Washington, interim dean of the College of Engineering, traveled to Akron to meet with executives at Goodyear.
"This is what we should be doing," Washington said. "We have industries that are struggling in the state, and it is our responsibility. It's a symbiotic relationship: we make companies stronger, we are more economically viable."
He touts advancements that were developed at Ohio State's Center for Occupational Health in Automotive Manufacturing and incorporated into the 2008 Honda Accord.
It took Mikesell, the co-director of the CMPND, a few years to bring together the six universities and 60-plus industry collaborators that form the basis of the consortium.
"I spent my time trying to find the right mix," he said, recalling frequent visits with university presidents and vice presidents throughout the state.
Everyone involved acknowledges that partnering with others takes time. "It's like sin and confession," said Gee, laughing. "You have to do
it all the time."
PLANTING THE FLAG
Gee frequently travels throughout the state with three goals in mind: plant the Buckeye flag, listen carefully, and form partnerships. 
When Gee says he's "planting the flag," he means he's planting the thought in all Ohioans that they can get a college education. He's concerned that only 24.1 percent of residents have a bachelor's degree by the age of 25. "The more bachelor's degrees in the state, the more profitable the state will be," he said.
The College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences is perhaps the iconic model for how a land-grant institution infiltrates rural areas of the state. Its Ohio State Extension agents live and work in communities throughout Ohio and continuously establish industry partnerships. It also seriously recruits students from rural families in which no one has yet attended college.
"What we try to do in our college is take this research, this education . . . into communities," said Bobby Moser, vice president of agricultural administration. "Our mission, of course, is to help the people of the state."
Every student in the college is required to complete an internship, and those internships frequently turn into postgraduation jobs, many that are Ohio-based. To date, 93.8 percent of students from the 2008 graduating classes are employed. It is estimated that 80.9 percent of graduates stay in Ohio.
The College of Engineering's internship program also helps students get jobs, often at the same place where they interned, said Washington, the interim dean.
Joyce Beatty recognizes that Ohio State needs to do more to encourage graduates to remain in Ohio. "We have to be more creative," she said. For one thing, getting students involved in communities while they're undergraduates helps them bond with those communities.
"We try to provide opportunities for students while they're matriculating," Beatty said. "It allows them to go beyond the walls of the university."
At the Fisher College of Business, 70 percent of graduates who report back have taken jobs in Ohio, said Pamela Park-Curry, director of undergraduate career management.
"Those students who take jobs outside Ohio are often looking for specific opportunities that Ohio just does not have," Park-Curry said. They may want to work on Wall Street, for example, or for a specific company, such as Google.
"Students want to stay in Ohio," she said. "I don't think that much talent is really draining away."
LEADING EDGE
Gee likes to point out that Ohio State is the ninth most powerful research engine in the country, based on figures from the National Science Foundation.
Plus, among Ohio State's 10 benchmark public research universities, only four have more overall funding available for research, including both industry and government money. They include the University of California at Los Angeles and the universities of Michigan, Washington, and Wisconsin-Madison.
Despite his overall optimism, Gee is not always upbeat. Ohio State is too humble regarding its research and its continuing influence on the state's economy, he says. And getting people to work together both within and outside of such a big university takes a lot of political finesse.
In a recent interview, Gee referred briefly to turf conflicts and the problems they bring. "Change is all right, if change is somewhere else," he said, describing a common attitude.
"We've got to take risks. We've got to be willing to sacrifice our individuality for the whole. . . . We've got to become more of a chorus than a concept."
He may get frustrated at times, but Gee has no plans to give up. "I am as energized as I've been in 30 years," he said.
Gee's enthusiasm, it seems, has spread across the entire campus, from Chalmers in his research lab to Achterberg in her dean's office and well beyond. The excitement of invention and innovation may secure Ohio State's place on the leading edge of the new economy.
This story was published in the Sept./Oct. 2009 issue of Ohio State Alumni Magazine. The magazine is a benefit of membership in the Alumni Association. To get your copy when it's hot off the press, join now.
