Good morning and thank you to the organizers and all the participants here in University Research Day! I am impressed with the quality and comprehensiveness of the research being performed.
I am often asked by our trustees and our alumni as to whether we are predominantly an undergraduate educational institution or predominantly a graduate research institution. My answer to those who ask me this is that asking that question automatically creates a false opposition between research and education, which in my view, should never be the case. Research should always accompany education and vice versa. Let me explain.
The goal of an education should be to liberate us, to free us, to pursue the truth about our world, wherever that might lead us. And then we should have the tools to pursue that truth, i.e. research methods, logic, reason, and the frameworks for asking questions of all kinds about persons and our universe. Moreover, the knowledge base of our society is constantly changing. For example, the entire world of computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the internet, did not even exist 30 years ago, and so the knowledge we have of our world and the tools we humans have created is constantly changing. And so to keep pace with our education, we have to be at the forefront of creating that new knowledge.
The Catholic University of America has a very proud history in the fields of research. We were created as the nation’s second research University in 1887 through a charter from Pope Leo XIII to our first rector or president Cardinal Gibbons. Many of you may be familiar with the preeminent association of research universities in America, the American Association of Universities, or the AAU. Our very own Catholic University of America was a founding member of that organization in 1900 along with 13 other PhD granting institutions, including Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, and the University of California.
So our heritage is rooted in our very proud identity as one of the original research universities in the nation and the world. And our research is necessary to help us advance the world of knowledge so our education is timely and up-to-date. But there are many other reasons that we must be excellent in our research and I would like to share some of those reasons with you.
Research Stimulates the Intellect and Instills Curiosity about the Ultimate Questions
If you will allow me, I want to share some personal stories about my engagement with research. As a freshman in Chemistry at Occidental College many years ago, I was very full of myself and thought I knew a very great deal about everything. As a result, I was a bit of a behavioral challenge in my first year of college. I did not enjoy going to class as I felt the teachers did not have a lot to teach me. In a word, I lacked humility and the ability to receive. I was very fortunate to have a superb professor in my freshman chemistry class, Dr. Agnes Ann Green, a PhD in inorganic chemistry from Stanford University, who recognized my challenges. In my very first quarter of study there, she invited me to perform research in her laboratory synthesizing a new chemical molecule comprising the peroxide bond, phosphate, and lithium. I found it fascinating to be attempting something no one had ever done before and even though it was challenging, I thrilled to the adventure. Thus began a lifelong love of intellectual discovery. In fact, I can point to this experience as a formative one in leading me to want to pursue a PhD, become a professor, and perform lifelong research.
My wife and my two sons – Zachary and Charlie – had precisely the same experience as freshmen in their college experiences. Zack is now a tenured professor in computational neuroscience and applied mathematics at the University of Colorado, and Charlie is interviewing for positions as a gravity wave astronomer. Both were introduced to the joys of intellectual discovery and research in their first two years at college, experiences that arguably changed the trajectory of their learning and their careers.
Later in College, as a junior, I performed organic chemistry research with Dr Frank DeHaan, a PhD student of HC Brown, the Nobel Prize winner in organic chemistry from Purdue. My project was to student the reaction kinetics of Friedel Crafts acylation, from which I published my first refereed journal article. The research required that I learn to blow glassware and manipulate reagents and products under vacuum. My research partner was another junior in chemistry, Nancy Baker. She struggled with glass blowing while I was more accomplished, so I offered to help her. 46 years later, we are about to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary. So there are other good reasons to engage in research.
My Own Personal Research Career
I went on to a very successful research career. After discerning that my own interests ran more to the applied, I pursued a PhD in Chemical Engineering, and then a teaching and research career in academia beginning my career at NC State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. This was a wonderful beginning to my experiences in research, publishing, mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in research and in life, applying my research to better society and industry and generally doing everything a research faculty member does. I have published over 100 refereed journal publications, been inventor or co-inventor on 12 patents, consulted for many companies, been actively engaged in two startup companies, and generally found my research career very fulfilling. As recently as just 2-3 years ago, I published my latest sequence of papers with my latest PhD student McKay Rytting.
Particularly fulfilling to me was my work on biosensing, immunosensors, and food disinfection, some of the unique work we performed with my students in the areas of bioengineering and chemical disinfection.
As I pursued my research and teaching career, I was asked by my colleagues to take on more and more leadership and administration roles at NC State. In 1995, I was asked to serve as Associate Department Chairperson; in 1999 I was asked to serve as Chair. Later in 2002, I was asked to help establish the North Carolina Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center at NC State. This is a unique training, education, and research facility dedicated to biomanufacturing and biopharmaceuticals and soon after launch, we began training and educating FDA inspectors in the facility on Good Manufacturing Practice. Recently, the White House’s chief science and technology advisor came to the center to see how it can benefit the nation in our continued drive to be a leader in research, development, and advanced manufacturing.
Research at The Catholic University of America
At the risk of cherry picking, I wanted to highlight some of the outstanding research being performed here at The Catholic University of America.
We do a great deal in the area of philosophy, theology, canon law, and the humanities here at the University, among the original areas of leadership we were founded on in 1887. Our scholars and researchers are asking and answering important questions about the ethics of warfare, how do we practice business fairly and equitably, what does the constitution teach us about how to properly govern our nation, what does it mean to be a person and what is the priority of the person and many other what I would call ultimate questions that only a Catholic University can and should ask.
We are also doing remarkable things in the area of biomedical engineering, including clinical trials to develop a new prosthesis for hands called HandMate, new prostheses for arms, and novel devices and forms for survivors of breast cancer.
One of our biologists is working on new T4-based nasal vaccine for COVID-19 that could prove to be revolutionary for future vaccines.
Our researchers are actively tackling poverty and food insecurity so that people can lead better lives.
One of our anthropologists is researching the history of Catholic parishes in the region that owned slaves in an effort at reconciliation and restorative justice. We know memory and history play such a critical role in ensuring that our society is able to move forward in dignity and with justice.
One of our psychologists is among the nation’s leaders in intervening – both qualitatively and quantitatively – with persons experiencing suicidal ideation, a national challenge that has deepened in the last few years.
In sum, our researchers our leading the way in investigating important societal issues, in discovering more fully the knowledge of the universe, in asking ultimate questions about both the universe and the human person, and in seeking the truth, the beauty, and the goodness of God’s creation, both human and otherwise. I am very proud of them and we want to ensure we continue to support them in appropriate ways.
Personal Reflection on the Real Value of Research
I want to reflect for a moment on another critically important point about research. The research that we do as a University, and the research that other universities perform, are valuable contributions to human knowledge and to the tools that society develops to enhance the human condition. Indeed, one can argue compellingly that the research and knowledge discovery that humankind has performed over the last 200-300 years has directly led to our ability to largely feed our planet and lengthen the lifespan of so much of humankind. At the beginning of the 20th century, the life expectancy of the average person worldwide was little better than 25-30 years (largely influenced by infant and maternal mortality, but also by deaths due to pernicious diseases such as tuberculosis, small pox, whooping cough, diptheria, typhoid, SIDS and others). The life expectancy today in developed nations now approaches 80 years of age, and persons who live into their 20s in America now have a greater than 50% chance of living to be 100 years old, unheard of even 30-40 years ago. Many cancers which typically were a death sentence for patients are now completely cured by novel immunotherapies. So we should celebrate greatly the accomplishments of worldwide research that has led to greater human livelihood.
But I want to offer a reflection on another element of human knowledge that should humble us and cause us to consider with greater wonder and awe how much we do not yet know.
At the turn of the 20th century, the scientific world and the world of physics believed we were on the verge of being able to completely describe all the workings of the universe through the fundamental laws of Newtonian mechanics, i.e. a world in which if we simply knew the locations, velocities, and accelerations of all “particles” in the universe, we could predict precisely all future locations and motions. That world view was completely and irreversibly upended by Albert Einstein and Max Planck with their important work and papers on the wave properties of light and the discovery of quantum mechanics. Nearly 120 years later, we still have no unifying theory of Newtonian mechanics and quantum mechanics, despite the very best efforts by thousands of scientists.
In the 1980s, the scientific world believed that all forces and energies could be explained through the four foundational forces: electromagnetism, gravity, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. All the talk of science was that we would soon have a unified force field theory. But then it was discovered that the observed rotational velocities of galaxies did not fit these forces or theory and it was postulated that there are forces, energies, and matter that are as yet undiscovered and unstudied called dark energy and dark matter, and that this energy and matter makes up the majority of energy and matter in the universe. Again, a complete upending of much of what we thought we knew about the universe. And so the theory of dark energy and dark matter is now a dogma in science despite the fact that we still have no direct evidence of either.
These observations can and should humble us into realizing that the majesty and vision of the Creator, the supreme designer of our Universe, God the Father, is still far from being completely comprehended by the human person. Indeed, we should be very grateful for those things that we do understand and those tools that we have created, but we should also recognize that it is quite likely that we will never know everything or even perhaps most things, and this should instill wonder, awe, and humility in us. A humble and grateful researcher is, in my view, much more effective, much more likely to make great discoveries, and much more impactful in our world and will likely be more listened to.
I should also note that as The Catholic University of America, we are confident that our research, our science, our engineering, can and never will be in conflict with our Catholic Faith. As St Pope John Paul II said in his 1996 address to the Pontifical Academy of Science, “truth cannot contradict truth,” so The Catholic University has no fear of any area of research that respects the infinite dignity of each and every human person and we embrace the active dialogue between faith, reason, and research.
Moving Forward as a University
So where does that leave us a University?
Through our many partnerships with external funding agencies and organizations – such as NASA Goddard, the National Institutes of Health, Chidren’s National Hospital, the Templeton Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and many others – we been lighting the way when it comes to research and discovery.
Impressively, our research expenditures have grown by 75% since 2017, which is the result of dogged work that can and should be recognized.
But we can and should do more. First, we need to return to our leadership position we claimed at our founding and become again an R1 Carnegie Very High Research Activity University. What will this take?
Right now we are spending $38 Million per year in research expenditures, a number that is up relative to several years ago. We need to get to $60-80 Million in research expenditures in the coming years. This of course will take considerably more in support from our University: support for MS and PHD students, support for grant writers, support for research centers and institutes, support in forming teams to write collaborative proposals. This is high on my to do list for the coming years.
Secondly, we need to increase the number of PhDs our University confers each year. In all fields. This will of course require more stipend and research support as mentioned above, but important way to achieve the revenue to support this growth if for our University to dramatically increase the number of tuition paying Masters students we recruit and graduate. Major research universities typically strongly support their business model by generating substantial revenue from Masters programs and we can and should do the same.
As our university grows in its stature and reputation due to advances in our groundbreaking research, we can and will see positive impacts on our recruitment and enrollment of both undergraduate and graduate students. As Jim Collins would say, this is an important flywheel we need to develop as a University.
Conclusions
This is the eighth year the University has held this University Research Day. I am very grateful for all who organized and staffed this important event. From what I have seen, the work being done is impressive and impactful. Thank you. I applaud all of you and the good work you do. As we continue to build and advance our research agenda, I trust and hope we will see the importance of this date and our involvement in it continue to grow.