Future of the Americas Conference
Monterrey, México
January 9, 2004
Thank you, President González Treviño and Governor José Natividad González Parás, for inviting me to participate in this conference. As president of The University of Texas at Austin, I have enjoyed the hospitality of México — and particularly that of Monterrey — on previous occasions. And I have had the honor of hosting Mexican educators, scholars, students, researchers, business and political leaders, and other distinguished visitors in Austin, including President Vicente Fox, who spoke at our university only two months ago.
México and Téjas have had a long and dramatic history together. Today we are interconnected by culture and language. We are partners in education, in commerce, and in the arts. For many years, the University of Texas has benefited from a vibrant cultural exchange with México. And we are committed to making this special relationship even stronger. That has been one of my major initiatives since the beginning of my service as president of the University, and I am pleased by the progress of recent years.
When we exchange ideas and resources — when we cross borders to learn from one another and to experience all that our neighbors have to offer — then our lives are enriched, our institutions are strengthened, our people benefit in tangible ways. And in the process, we experience the respect and understanding that should always guide the spirit of cooperation between our countries.
And so I am honored to join you today as a participant in this dialogue about the future of the Americas. Because in Texas, a vision of the future — as it relates to our state — is already taking shape. And that future is tied directly to the Hispanic population of Texas. Today, that population makes up 32 percent of Texas, and demographers predict that by the year 2015 it will be 37 percent. This year, almost half of the first-graders in Texas schools are Hispanic. And so it is vitally important that our relationship with México and Latin America remain close and fraternal, and that our interactions continue to be open and productive.
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My task here today is to comment on competitiveness: how to build it and how to keep it. That is a big subject that can be viewed in many ways, but perhaps there is only a handful of really important elements. Let me mention these four:
- the command of knowledge
- a society educated well enough to adapt to change
- a free market for both ideas and commerce
- stable institutions that operate with integrity
All of these are things that good universities foster in a society. Forgive my bias, but for the past 35 years I have been working in academic environments, and I have seen how they can generate new knowledge, educate future leaders, disseminate mass information, serve as engines of economic development for everyone's benefit, raise social awareness, and foster that free market for ideas.
To create a culture of competitiveness, social, business, and political leaders should look seriously at the model of the successful university. At their best, universities are highly competitive environments that reward faculty members and students who excel and who create valuable new knowledge. Developing countries and small economies would do well to develop and to support their top institutions of higher learning, but they would do even better to foster research power within those universities, to find ways to reward genuine achievement among the members of their faculties, and to cultivate a habit of engagement among the universities with the most pressing issues of the larger society. Developing societies must take advantage of the expertise and the rich resources of people and research facilities in leading universities. And they should develop specific partnerships with universities in projects and initiatives that support the economy and raise the quality of life. A university is a deep spring that nourishes those things that a society needs in order to make progress: imagination, ambition, intellectual curiosity, and a zeal for discovery.
I believe that there is no more powerful tool than a powerful university for developing a society.
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Let me illustrate by providing examples of the impact that The University of Texas at Austin has had on the State of Texas and beyond. These examples will suggest the kinds of initiatives that are possible when institutions of higher learning become fully engaged in their societies — and when societies invest wisely in higher education:
- University research generates income that is good for the economy. In 2003, for example, our University received 381 million US dollars for federally and privately supported research. Using an economic multiplier of 3.32 established by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the economic impact of the University's research and related expenditures totals more than 1 billion US dollars per year.
- This past year, our University researchers brought forth about $4 million in royalty income through the commercialization of their work. The University has created an Office of Technology Commercialization to encourage and facilitate commercialization of the discoveries our researchers make.
- The University played a crucial role in attracting to Austin two early national industry consortia — Sematech and MCC. There's no question that the University provided a stimulating intellectual atmosphere for the high tech explosion that occurred in Austin in the 1990s.
- The Austin Technology Incubator, which is part of the University, has graduated 70 technology-based companies. These companies have generated nearly 3,000 jobs in the Austin region and have raised $600 million in capital.
- Scores of companies have been spun off from the University, including Tracor, Radian, National Instruments, and Evolutionary Technologies.
- More than 11,000 managers have been trained in the past five years in our executive education program at the McCombs School of Business.
When I was a graduate student at The University of Texas in the late 1960s, Austin had a population of about 200,000 and almost no industry. Today, it is a metropolitan area of 1,300,000 and is a nationally recognized center of technology and creative activity. The University of Texas is, without question, the single most important reason for that transformation.
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But all of that is history. Here are some things that our university is doing to address the future:
-
About three years ago,
the University established the Center for Nano and Molecular
Science and Technology. We have raised more than $11
million
for advanced instrumentation
for nanoscience and nanotechnology, and there are 80 faculty
members and more than 100 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers
using that instrumentation
at the present time. We have formed a partnership with
three other Texas universities to seek federal and state
funding in this field. The
partnership will work together
to promote Texas as a center for research in nanotechnology.
- I might add that during President Fox's visit to Austin in November, the University signed an agreement with the Mexican federal agency CONACYT to collaborate with México in the development of a trans-border consortium in nanotechnology research.
- In addition, we have established the UT Department of Biomedical Engineering. Our biomedical researchers are collaborating with the world-renowned M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the UT Health Science Center in Houston.
- Our Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences was established in 2003 to produce world-class interdisciplinary research in computational engineering, science, and technology. Several industrial partners are supporting the institute, including Dell, IBM, Microsoft, and Nortel.
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But competitiveness can also be viewed regionally—even transnationally—and we are taking that viewpoint in Austin.
The University of Texas is committed to developing partnerships with Mexican industry and with educational institutions throughout the country. For example, we have ongoing research agreements with PEMEX in which our university’s geological, environmental, and engineering expertise is put directly at the service of México.
In higher education, the city of Monterrey is fertile ground for collaboration. We have developed a special relationship with the principal universities here. In fact, Monterrey has become one of the most popular destinations for University of Texas exchange students in México. We have established exchange programs here in business, public affairs, nursing, pharmacy, social work, information technology, and education. In the next decade, the Monterrey-Austin corridor may very well emerge as an international leader in industrial relations and high technology.
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My point here is to suggest that competitive universities are natural allies with those who want to develop research capacity and a culture of competitiveness. For example, I was at a conference recently where I was reminded that the heart stint and the artificial heart were created decades ago in University of Texas medical centers. The Internet is the product of collaboration between academic research centers and a military think tank. We don't have to search very far to find university researchers in the hunt for cutting-edge discovery and Nobel Prizes.
How does this apply to the Future of the Americas?
In a quest for a stronger share of the global economy, perhaps the first step of any society should be to develop what it already has. And to cultivate partnerships with those who have already extended their hands. We at The University of Texas at Austin will continue to build relationships with higher education and industry in México. We will look for ways to make our friendship stronger and more productive. We welcome a future with México and all of Latin America as our neighbors and fellow collaborators. The river separating us is not so wide or so deep as to prevent a good idea whose time has come.
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