CEO's Column
By Margaret S. Carlson, Ph.D. '83
While traveling on the Danube River with a University of Minnesota Alumni Association tour a few years ago, we gazed at the homes that lined the riverbanks of the small European towns. The houses were so close to the shore that we could look directly into the lighted rooms. “Every person in those homes has been touched by the University of Minnesota,” I remarked to our group of travelers.
Someone laughed and replied, “You’re not going to tell us they’re all Gopher grads!”
No, I said, but the U has most definitely improved their lives. Then I proceeded to share a list of the discoveries, inventions, and scholarly achievements that took birth at the University and that have bettered people’s lives—saving them or simply making life easier or more enjoyable—around the world. Here are a few, going back more than a century.
1894—Assistant professor of botany Alexander Anderson invented the process for creating puffed wheat and puffed rice.
1900—Theophilus Haecker, a dairy researcher, established the first scientifically based standards for feeding cows and popularized the concept of cooperative creameries throughout the state.
1923—The University’s work on the Red Wing electrification project established the first rural electrical line in the world, setting a pattern for expanding electrical service to farmers and improving rural living conditions.
1936—The first calf in the nation born through artificial insemination was delivered on the St. Paul campus, revolutionizing livestock reproduction.
1946—Edward Wilson Davis, director of the U’s Mines Experiment Station, developed the first of many processes for converting taconite rock into commercial iron ore.
1952—The world’s first open-heart surgery was performed by C. Walton Lillehei (B.S. ’39, M.D. ’41) and Dr. F. John Lewis (M.D. ’41) at the University’s Variety Club Heart Hospital.
1952—Nutritionist Jane Leichsenring won the prestigious Borden Award for her work in fundamental studies in nutrition and experimental foods.
1956—Walter Brattain (Ph.D. ’27) and colleagues win the Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the transistor.
1964—Epidemiologists in the University’s School of Public Health were key contributors to the U.S. Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health, and were again in 1994.
1967—The world’s first successful kidney-pancreas transplant was performed at the University.
1967—Civil rights leader Roy Wilkins (B.A. ’23), longtime head of the NAACP, was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Lyndon Johnson.
1968—The world’s first successful bone marrow transplant was performed at the University.
1969—The Department of American Indian Studies, the first of its kind in the nation, was established at the University.
1970—Era wheat, a semidwarf variety, was developed at the University and returned $266 million to the Minnesota economy during the next decade.
1972—Seymour Cray (B.S. ’49, M.S. ’50) founded Cray Research and led the development of supercomputers.
1975—Music professor Dominick Argento, considered to be the nation’s preeminent composer of lyric opera, won the Pulitzer Prize for his song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf.
1981—The first artificial pancreas, an implantable infusion pump developed by University faculty, was used by a patient with diabetes.
1982—Professor Lee Wattenberg (M.D. ’50) was recognized for his studies of chemicals in broccoli and other vegetables that inhibit cancer formation.
1984—Microbiologist Russell Johnson identified the pathogen that causes Lyme disease and, in 1988, patented a vaccine for dogs.
1989—The University released four new varieties of soybeans, bringing the number of new varieties of field crops released by the University in the past decade to 17.
1991—The Honeycrisp apple, developed at the University, was introduced and became the most widely planted variety in Minnesota.
1997—The College of Biological Sciences successfully reconstructed a 15-million-year-old fish gene to create a new and better DNA delivery system for gene therapy.
1998—Dr. Louis Ignarro (Ph.D. ’66), won the Nobel Prize for medicine for his discoveries that led to the development of Viagra.
2002—Professor Catherine Verfaillie identified an adult stem cell that, like embryonic stem cells, offers hope for a cure to many debilitating diseases and injuries.
2004—Lanny Schmidt, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, invented a reactor to extract hydrogen from ethanol, offering the first real hope that hydrogen could be a source of inexpensive and renewable energy.
And this is just a sampling of the remarkable achievements that can be traced back to the University. Why do I share this list? It’s the best way to illustrate the importance of research universities to the welfare of humanity—not just historically, but today and in the future.
U researchers are just months or years away from breakthroughs that will change and save even more lives—perhaps in studies of chemicals produced by tiny ocean organisms that could help fight cancer and other diseases, in discovering how to preserve the water in Lake Superior, in finding a possible cure for HIV and AIDS, in developing housing that is affordable and healthful, and in creating prosthetic limbs that can be powered by the brain.
That’s what a research university is: a place where discoveries are turned into cures and solutions and ideas that make our lives better.
The Minnesota Legislature is in session, and much of the debate in the Capitol halls is focused on how much money to appropriate to the University of Minnesota. We implore you to write or call your legislators (find out how by clicking the link above) and to tell them the University is the state’s most important asset. Tell them how the U betters lives across Minnesota and around the world. Tell them the U needs adequate funding. Tell them that the U’s future is in their hands.
But truly, right now, the U’s future is in your hands.
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