Abstract: In his keynote speech to University Scholars Day 2011, Dr. V. Lane Rawlins explored the importance of research to individuals and society and the connections that link scientific discovery, technological change, and economic growth. He posits that research universities, the workplaces for thousands of talented professors and students, have led the way to solve problems by exploring, often with unanticipated consequences and unexpected results that changed the world.
Rawlins asserts that while corporations spend much more on research than universities do, in some ways, it is “the difference between education and training. When we know exactly what we want someone to do or know, we can specifically convey that information or training and then test to measure its effects. But, education is more. It is creating an environment where folks will think outside the box, go beyond their teachers, and use their tools on new problems. As we think about funding research because of the payoff (and the payoffs have been tremendous) we must remember that the most important returns have come because the funding was a mandate to explore, not a contract to find, and the most likely major effect has been a change in our educational mission. That is why, I believe, American higher education remains far ahead of everyone else.”
Dr. Rawlins discusses several examples of “accidental” discoveries that were made when scientists engaged in basic research found something they were not looking for that turned out to scientifically important. He argued that the process of going from scientific discovery to technological change and marketable products is a part of our national economic model but it is not predictable. Over the course of the 20th century, growth in government and corporate funding of research transformed the mission of public and private universities to include research. Dr. Rawlins concluded however, that the really groundbreaking advances in research still come most often in environments such as those in American universities, where the research outcome is not prescribed, but where scientific exploration flourishes.
