Showers Complex, home of the Advanced Research and Technology Institute
Historically, many businesses thought first of other large Midwestern universities when it came to partnerships for research and economic development programs.
Indiana University's newly created Advanced Research and Technology Institute (ARTI) is changing all that.
IU Bloomington has top-drawer science departments, and is internationally renowned in the areas of humanities and the performing arts. But it has no engineering or agriculture programs, and, of course, the medical school is not located on the Bloomington campus.
That's why other schools have had the edge over IU where industrial partnerships are concerned.
"But that's outdated thinking," said George E. Walker, vice president for research and dean of the IU Graduate School, and also vice president of ARTI's board of directors. He said the Bloomington campus has much to offer in terms of partnerships, but that it's not well known.
"Being a public institution, there are limits to our entrepreneurial possibilities, especially when one gets into the for-profit sector," Walker said. "We needed an arms-length foundation."
ARTI is the answer. He called ARTI the action wing of the university, saying, "ARTI doesn't set policy; it carries out policy. It's a symbol that we care about industrial partnerships and that we give them a higher priority than in the past."
Walker used a football analogy in explaining how he and ARTI President Doug Wilson work together.
"We're a team," he said. "In order for this to work, I have to throw the ball to Doug and he has to run with it. Ideas and priorities have to come from within the university. If we are to score, he has to take them and implement them.
"This is wonderful, not only for the state of Indiana, but for the university. Professors' ideas get recognized. Student internships can be expanded. ARTI provides a wonderful, well-lit front door to the university, particularly for business."
Walker said he goes to Washington, D.C., about twice a month to confer with federal agencies "to make sure that we are aware of their activities and that we can compete successfully for federal funds, and also to influence them to create new areas in which we can compete particularly well. ARTI will help us with all of this."
Walker holds a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University, a master's degree from Case Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Case in theoretical nuclear physics. He joined the IU Department of Physics in 1970 and has held a vice presidency since 1991.
His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation continuously since 1971. He has been a consultant for the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a visiting scientist for both the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
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