ASU President Michael Crow introduced George Poste, the head of the Arizona Biodesign Institute, as a "technological Zen master," during the $69 million facility's groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday.
Poste, who reportedly will be paid $300,000 a year, currently heads the Scottsdale-based consulting firm Health Technology Networks, with projects involving the study of human genes. He also chairs a Pentagon task force against bioterrorism, which Crow cited as evidence of his knowledge of the "silver and dark sides of science."
Poste also helped bring 29 pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines to market while heading research and development for health care company SmithKline Beecham. Crow and other leaders said partnerships between research and industry would be crucial for the institute.
"Our goal is to build teams of excellence that will really make this a mecca for [biotechnology and nanotechnology] research," said Charles Arntzen, founding director of the institute.
The four-story, 170,000-square-foot building, located on McAllister Avenue and Terrace Road, is expected to be completed in 2004.
The institute could also add three more buildings if the state Legislature approves $185 million for ASU research facilities.
Poste compared the process of building the institute to building an expansion football team, predicting that ASU would take five to 10 years to become a world-class research university.
"You've got a lot of talent, but you have to go through the difficult task of building it into a Super Bowl performer," Poste said. "You've got some great talent here, and thanks to the state and ASU, you have the opportunity to enrich that by going to get some additional scientific superstars."
Crow said the improved research facilities would attract "the next wave of scientists," who would be instrumental in improving the world.
"[Science and technology] will be the driving force of economic change, social change and cultural change," Crow said. "A university that really wants to be a 21st century institution will have to grasp that."
Crow said the building would be devoted to "science with a notion of why we're doing it," adding that the research would help both the industrialized and developing world.
"If we only conduct our design activities ... so that only the rich people of the world living in a few countries of the planet have a right to benefit from them, then we are making a big mistake," Crow said.
What do you think of George Poste's new position at ASU? Post your opinion in the forum below.
Reach the reporter at garrett.neese@asu.edu.