Pataki visits and announces $1 million for genomics plans

Gov. George Pataki looks at slides in the Biotechnology Building's fermentation facility Saturday, while President Hunter Rawlings, right, and Dick Holsten, interim director of the Center for Advanced Technology in Biotechnology, look on. Robert Barker/University Photography

By David Brand

New York Gov. George E. Pataki came to Cornell this past Saturday, both to see his alma mater, Yale, beat the Big Red in football 37-20 and to announce a $1 million state grant for the Genomics Initiative, Cornell's hugely ambitious interdisciplinary genetics research program.

"Cornell University is among the top research facilities in the world and a tremendous asset to the state," Pataki said. "The potential of high-paying jobs associated with the field of genomics and biotechnology is worthy of every investment we can make."

The $1 million in funding will go to the purchase of research equipment and to fund a study of the potential of creating a "genomics corridor" in the state, Pataki explained, similar "to Silicon Alley and our Chip Fab initiative." The last of these is the state government's effort to fund research in the microchip industry and to encourage new chip manufacturing enterprises.

Pataki noted that the state has increased its aid to Cornell's Theory Center, an important contributor to genomics research, every year since 1996 and now is supporting research into molecular processes that will lead to transformations in agriculture, medicine and engineering. "We hope the relationship between the state and Cornell will continue to grow stronger and stronger in the future," he said.

President Hunter Rawlings thanked Pataki for his support, which Rawlings described as "vital." Such state funding, he said, can be a "leverage to produce excellence in research and teaching." In a statement, Rawlings noted that Pataki's support of the Theory Center was a major factor in the university being chosen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture last year as the National Center for Bioinformation and Comparative Genomics. And, he said, the governor's pledge this year of $300,000 in matching funds was essential to Cornell's being chosen by the National Science Foundation as a Science and Technology Center in Nanobiotechnology.

"This partnership between the state and Cornell is one that works extraordinarily well and has great significance for the state's economic development," Rawlings said.

Steven Tanksley, Cornell's L.H. Bailey Professor of Plant Breeding and a leading figure in the Genomics Initiative, asked the governor if he envisioned a network of universities across the state involved in genomics research. The state, said Pataki, "is working on a linkage" at the state university system level. Also, he noted, it made "no sense not also to have linkages between the private and state systems, and we will work to make that happen."

Although this was Pataki's first official tour of the campus, he is not a stranger to Cornell. His sister-in-law is a Cornell graduate, and Pataki recalled attending her graduation ceremony.