University Tries to Make Texas a Science Force

University Tries to Make Texas a Science Force
By JONATHAN D. GLATER, Aug 10, 2006
In an effort to make Texas a magnet for scientific and medical research, the University of Texas is planning a $2.5 billion program to expand research and teaching in the sciences, including medicine and technology.

The initiative would be one of the largest investments in expansion by a public university, university officials said.

The effort would pay for dozens of projects on all but one campus in the system, with most of the money for capital projects like buildings and laboratories. The money would come from the state, income generated by the university’s $15.5 billion endowment and donations.

“We’re trying to create some momentum,” the university chancellor, Mark G. Yudof, said.

Mr. Yudof added that to remain competitive the system needed to improve research and teaching in the sciences.

“There is a competition,” he said, “just like there is a competition among states for attracting industry and for being magnets for bright people.”

Other states have announced similar initiatives, though most were not as large as the Texas plan. In 2004, for example, voters in California approved providing $3 billion over 10 years to finance stem cell research.

Arizona State University has spent $150 million on a new Biodesign Center focused on a multidisciplinary approach to study areas like diseases and injury and pain to the environment. The university anticipates spending an additional $200 million to complete the center.

“The kind of thing that you’re seeing makes sense if a state wants to develop its economy and be attractive,” said Bruce Alberts, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, who was president of the National Academy of Sciences for 12 years. “What they’re thinking of is jobs and income tax revenue. They’re really thinking about the practical spinoffs of all this.”

The Texas initiative would be backed by $678 million in bonds issued by the state, $406 million in income generated by the university endowment and other investments, $659 million from bonds issued by the university, $191 million in grants and $302 million in gifts.

The initiative will not affect tuition, Mr. Yudof said.

Among the projects, some of which have been announced, is a 365,000-square-foot research center at the Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The center would study developmental biology, neuroscience, dermatology and the molecular basis of cancer.

At the campus in El Paso, more than $120 million will be spent on improving research in engineering and physical sciences. At the main campus, in Austin, the Experimental Science Building, which houses research laboratories and classrooms, will receive a $125 million overhaul.