Purdue Agriculture: Connections Magazine: Jischke Interview

I want to thank you all for having me here today - I think. And I want you to know what a pleasure it's been coming to Purdue to serve as president. This is a university filled with people of enormous talents.

I believe Purdue will continue to be a leader in higher education throughout this new century. And agriculture will always be one of our major focuses. Agriculture and genomics and biotechnology will be among the most exciting fields in the world during the 21st century.

This new century holds greater potential and promise for agriculture than any time in the past. Purdue is a land-grant university, and that is something very important to me. Land-grant universities were created to serve the people. Our missions of education, research and outreach have helped Indiana to grow and prosper since the days when John Purdue first donated this land.

Purdue has helped Indiana develop its agriculture. It has helped Indiana businesses and industries to prosper. Now, we have a new calling.

Today we would like to put our missions of education, research and outreach to work to help foster a new, high-technology economy in the state of Indiana. And let there be no doubt about it. Technological advances in the coming century are going to have a huge effect on agriculture.

The worldwide economy is moving in the direction of knowledge-based industries. Information and communications technology has exploded. Incredible advances in biology are transforming everything from the production and processing of food to the way we provide medical care.

The sustained national prosperity the country has enjoyed in recent years is being driven by new economic forces that are powered primarily by science and technology. Indiana is at a point when it has the opportunity to capture a larger share of this new economy. And no university in the country is better positioned than Purdue to play a major role in this knowledge-based economic development.

We have proposed three high-technology initiatives to the governor and the Indiana General Assembly. These are initiatives in:
Biomedical Engineering,
Computational Science and Engineering, and
Genomics and Biotechnology.

Purdue is asking the state to make an annual investment that will expand our work in Biomedical Engineering. With this investment, we can stimulate the growth of Indiana's economy by attracting new companies working in this exciting new field. Our researchers have already discovered that a material in hog intestines promotes amazing healing in human skin and tissue. The economic and medical potentials for this are enormous.

And with an investment in the future from the state, we can do much, much more. Indiana can become a center for the development of new biomedical technologies in the years to come.

Advanced computation is at the heart of virtually everything we do today - in business, industry, agriculture, teaching and research. At Purdue, we have used computational science:
To speed up production for industries, decreasing costs.
To unravel the structure of viruses, including some that cause the common cold. And to solve the structure of an enzyme, making it much easier for hospital laboratories to detect tuberculosis in patients.

If the Indiana General Assembly approves Purdue's initiative in this area, we can make Indiana a more significant factor in high technology, creating new jobs and new revenue and bringing in an additional $15 million to $20 million in research funds each year.

Genomics and biotechnology is a field that has an enormous economic and quality-of-life potential. Let me give you one example of our work in this area.

As you know, a parasite called the "soybean cyst nematode" causes damage estimated at $30 million to $50 million a year in Indiana alone. Nationally, the annual cost is $270 million.

A group of Purdue scientists, led by Professor Virginia Ferris, has developed a strain of soybeans that resists the nematode. The new product can be bred with other soybean strains so that the nematode will cease to be a significant problem for farmers.

Very few universities in the world combine excellent programs in agriculture, science, engineering, pharmacy and technology with proximity to an emerging research park. Purdue is one of these rare institutions.

Purdue is poised to be one of the leading undergraduate and graduate programs in genomics and biotechnology in the United States. And Indiana agriculture will be among the first to capitalize on this. We are asking the state to make an investment in Indiana's economic future by seeding Purdue's genomics and biomedical activity.

We fully understand that these are difficult times in Indiana. A nationwide softening of the economy has made revenue tight for the coming two years.

Our goal during this session of the General Assembly is to work with the legislature and the governor to accomplish goals that all of us share:
The best higher education possible for our children.
And the best economy possible for the people of Indiana.