Returning to faculty, Norm Scott reviews CU research record

Norman Scott, vice president for research and advanced studies, will be returning to the faculty as professor of agricultural and biological engineering. Robert Barker/University Photography

By David Brand

For the past nine years, Norman R. Scott has been keeping a watchful eye over Cornell research as vice president for research and advances studies. Now, as he plans his return to the faculty, he is taking inventory both of accomplishments and chances missed.

On the whole, said Scott, "I feel positive about all that's happened." Cornell, he said, has continued to be successful in maintaining its national leadership role in numerous research areas, even though the level of federal funding approved by Congress has been disappointing. As for Cornell's research faculty, he said, "It is increasingly more interdisciplinary, and I see a lot of enthusiastic faculty working in areas of common research interest."

Scott is returning this summer to the faculty of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, where he will pursue a number of interests, but mainly his passion for sustainable development, with the focus on China. His successor has not yet been named.

Commenting on Scott's tenure, President Hunter Rawlings said: "As vice president, Norm Scott has brought to his position an understanding of both the research process and the political dimensions of research funding. The university has benefited from his many initiatives over the past nine years, and I am pleased that he will continue, as a faculty member, to provide leadership in international sustainable development and in our expanding relationships with China."

Provost Don Randel spoke of Scott's contributions to Cornell in focusing attention even more closely on the university's research role. "His perception of the need to maintain close links with federal funding agencies and at the same time to encourage research efforts within the institution has paid off handsomely for Cornell," Randel said.

At the same time, Randel praised Scott's role in ensuring that Cornell research becomes an incubator for private enterprise with the fostering of many start-up concerns during his tenure: "The role he has played has been one of strength and keen encouragement both to the researcher and the entrepreneur," Randel said.

When Scott took over the research post in July 1989, he put together a list of research issues that he saw requiring more attention from the Cornell administration. These included support of research centers and government research relationships; outreach knowledge transfer; research communications and specific initiatives, such as corporate strategic relations; undergraduate research; and strategic research planning. In most of these areas, Scott said he sees an overall gain.

But on another of his 1989 issues, he is not so sanguine.

This involved the recruitment and development of faculty and the problem of "inequity -- persons feeling stretched out." Nine years later, that problem still exists, said Scott.

Scott gives the institution high marks for putting much more focus on research. However, he feels that the encouragement for companies to spin off from Cornell research is still "rather ad hoc." He said: "We need to identify sources of funds that will encourage the process of knowledge transfer from research."

Knowledge transfer has been one of Scott's great passions during his tenure -- he avoids the term "technology transfer," feeling it is too narrow. An example of knowledge transfer is Cornell's influence in the formation of start-up companies, retention of existing companies and attraction of outside companies. (There are now 68 such companies, of which Cornell has taken an equity position in 19.) Another example is the formation of an outreach council that meets twice a year to address issues ranging from economic development (patents and licenses ) to precollege education (relationships with schools) and urban issues.

Within the Cornell community, said Scott, there is a need to encourage even more interdisciplinary work between departments. "If we ignore, for example, the integration of molecular biology, information sciences and advanced materials, we are going to miss a very big opportunity," he said.

In the future, Scott's focus will be on a much larger stage. Since 1990 he has been involved in a number of international development efforts, most recently in China. Last October he led a faculty group to China to attend a planning workshop. And in January, Scott, President Rawlings and Ray Wu, Cornell professor of biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, went to China to sign a number of agreements with universities and research centers. In the coming weeks, Cornell will host a Chinese delegation at a conference to plan the mechanism for transferring Cornell research, particularly in the agricultural sciences, to Chinese farms and businesses.

"I look on this as a major investment in a country that one day will be the number one economy. Cornell should be there at the beginning because we have such a high reputational recognition in China," Scott said.

In the coming years he plans to spend much time in China acting as a conduit for the development of new programs. In particular, he has an interest in what he calls "eco-industrial parks," or sustainable communities where people live, work, grow their own food, produce their own energy and manage their own waste. Such a community of 11,000 people and 50 small businesses now exists outside Shanghai.

How will Cornell benefit? "Teaching will be very important within this concept," said Scott. "We will develop courses in sustainable development within the integration of agriculture and the broad picture."