UO State Affairs News
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State law makes it easier to recruit new postdocs
First published in Around the O, in July 2017. A new Oregon law will make it easier for researchers at the UO to recruit postdoctoral scholars and secure federal research funding, chief research officer David Conover said in a campus message July 18. “I am pleased to announce that the Oregon State Legislature has passed Senate Bill 214, a law that will make it easier for us to recruit postdoctoral scholars and bring in more federal funding,” said Conover, UO’s vice president for research and innovation. “Our UO team led the way for the rest of the state in the multiyear effort of passing this legislation.” The law applies to postdoctoral scholars — or “postdocs” — trainees pursuing advanced studies beyond the doctoral level in preparation for independent careers. Many postdocs participate in research projects under the direction of faculty mentors. The new law will exempt postdocs from the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System and provide them with an alternative retirement plan after it takes effect Jan. 1. It will allow them to receive up to a 4 percent university match on retirement contributions they make. The new law applies to scholars at other Oregon universities as well, but the UO was the initial driving force behind efforts to pass the legislation. Conover credited members of his staff, the UO Office of Government and Community Relations, United Academics and the UO Postdoc Association for working to pass the measure, which supports UO President Michael Schill’s goal of increasing academic excellence and research productivity. More details about how SB 214 will be implemented will be posted to the Research and Innovation websitein the coming months. In the meantime, questions can be directed to Cass Moseley at [email protected]. Read the full version of the announcement.
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UO achieves key goals in legislative session
UO achieves key goals in 2018 legislative session The 2018 Oregon Legislature adjourned Saturday, March 3. In a session marked by conversations about climate change and the passage of a bill restricting gun sales in the wake of the shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, The University of Oregon achieved some wins on key priorities, and received half of the funding requested for the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. Lawmakers protected universities from cuts to operating budgets, ensured DREAMers can continue to qualify for in-state tuition even in the face of federal inaction on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and allocated another $20 million in bonding authority for the Knight. “This takes us further to making sure the dream becomes a reality,” said President Michael Schill. “We are really grateful to the legislature, the governor who pushed this, and we are grateful to our local legislators for their support.” Aside from budgets and bonding, the Legislature approved several measures that will impact UO: HB 4035 – Requires the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) provide full resident tuition assistance at community colleges and public universities for qualifying members of the Oregon National Guard. HB 4053 – Aims to better understand how well accelerated credit programs like Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate requirements are working for Oregon students. HB 4063 – Creates a task force on public policy related to autonomous vehicles and specifies a place for a representative from a public university on task force. HB 4141 – Creates new statutory provisions around the campus process for tuition-setting. The bill ensures public university students have the opportunities for education and engagement in every step of the process. UO is already implementing most of the new requirements, including the formation of the Tuition and Fee Advisory Board, publicly posting meetings and materials, and providing opportunities for public comment and feedback. SB 1554 – Ensures that an individual or family’s contribution to a 529 Oregon College Savings Plan does not count toward determining eligibility to receive assistance or benefits like food stamps. SB 1557 – Protects university students who serve in the military by allowing them to complete missing assignments or exams in accordance with university policies if they are called to duty. SB 1563 – Ensures that undocumented students can continue to qualify for tuition equity in Oregon and can legally receive scholarships and financial aid. SB 1566 – Takes the first steps toward addressing Oregon’s PERS unfunded liability by establishing a state matching fund for employers to contribute to in order to pay down their own outstanding liability.
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UO 2020: Fast Forward
Originally published in Around the O on July 6, 2018. It’s not easy to transform an institution. Buildings and traditions date back more than a century. There are a thousand moving parts to recalibrate—programs, people, priorities. How does a 142-year-old university move boldly into the future while retaining the best of all that has been accomplished? This is the comprehensive shift happening now at the University of Oregon—an evolution that will be as visible in the institution’s academic offerings as it is in the campus architecture. New buildings, new programs, new opportunities for researchers, students, and athletes, all anchored in a steadfast foundation. The transformation is rooted in that which distinguishes the UO: innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, entrepreneurial spirit, and philanthropy—nearly $2 billion in support in the current campaign. Change will arrive in 2020, when the university touts the first phase of an unprecedented, $1 billion science-and-education campus; a reimagined Hayward Field that connects the legends of the past to champions of the years ahead; a campus-wide initiative to tap the exponential growth of data in our lives; and an ever-changing generation of students whose strength lies in their diversity. These are just four of the paradigm-shifting changes that will remake the face of the institution, exemplars of the transformation that will characterize a new day—the University of Oregon, 2.0. In a speech last spring unveiling the new Hayward Field, President Michael Schill issued a call to action that captures the moment: “The message for every student, every faculty and staff member, and every alumnus is clear: Don’t come to the University of Oregon to be the best in town. Don’t come to be the best in the state or even in the country. You come to the University of Oregon to be the best in the world.” Growing, and Growing More Diverse Roger Thompson is excited about the future. It’s not just that fewer Ducks are graduating with debt (and less of it) than their peers nationwide—the vice president for Student Services and Enrollment Management has witnessed only upward trends since joining the UO in 2010: growth in student population and academic quality and, above all, growth in diversity. The class of 2017 was the most ethnically diverse in the university’s history, a trend that has continued for eight years running. There are more first-generation college students and a better mix of those from urban and rural areas. “The University of Oregon has become more diverse, both in terms of race and ethnicity, as well as a socioeconomic standpoint,” says Thompson. “We’ve also become more diverse from a geographic standpoint. We now have all 50 states represented at the UO, as well as about 100 countries from around the world. In every way that you can define diversity, our student body is becoming more diverse.” The growth results from the effort to make the UO more of a national, even international school, than a West Coast destination. Thompson points out that the university is now more diverse than the state in which it resides. “Our goal as a university is to prepare people to compete in a 21st- century global economy,” says Thompson. “The more we can expose students to students who are different than them, have a different worldview, give them the chance to live, learn, recreate, with students who come from outside of the US, the more it will help all of them to prepare for a world that’s becoming very small in many ways.” The Changing Face of the UO Student 2000 2017 Student population 17,843 22,980 GPA for entering freshmen 3.40 3.55 Percentage of ethnic minorities 12.8% 26.8% Percentage of international students 7.7% 11.8% Countries represented 84 95 Accelerating Science Education and Research In 2020, an ambitious $1 billion effort to transform science education and research will come to life: the opening of the first building on the University of Oregon’s Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. An important milestone will be reached this summer when Robert Guldberg starts work as vice president and executive director of the initiative, made possible with a $500 million gift from the Knights. As a scientist and entrepreneur, Guldberg has completed research that has led to startup companies and new medical innovations that are now impacting patient care. Guldberg, who currently leads the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at the Georgia Institute of Technology, brings a multifaceted background that dovetails well with the roots of the Knight Campus, which grew out of the UO’s decades-long interdisciplinary culture. Continuing this tradition, the campus will become an integration point where people and ideas come together, a place where biologists, human physiologists, chemists, and bioengineers work on effective diagnostics, therapies, and interventions to treat cancer, degenerative diseases, and traumatic injuries. These points of integration help “complete the innovation cycle,” Guldberg says, and will be fostered by new partnerships. His own experience with Oregon Health and Science University and the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine serves as a prime example. Guldberg and his OHSU collaborator, Dr. Kenton Gregory, have led a national consortium of projects on treating severe extremity trauma—injuries to bone, muscle, blood vessels, and nerves. The consortium is developing numerous innovative regenerative therapies, some of which are now in clinical trials. Guldberg’s research is focused on complex bone injuries and his most recent work suggests that monitoring circulating immune cells in the blood may allow clinicians to predict which patients will heal well and which will have complications. As the Knight Campus takes shape, the partnership between UO and OHSU will deepen. UO students will have access to the clinical perspective of a medical school and OHSU students will be able to explore computational science, core life-science areas like biology and chemistry, and entrepreneurial education offered by a comprehensive research university. Entrepreneurship is key to understanding how scientific inquiry will be practiced at the Knight Campus. Guldberg describes it as building on the UO’s strong foundation of life and physical sciences by integrating applied scientists, biomedical engineers, and those with entrepreneurial experience. Says Guldberg: “Instead of starting with a fundamental question, like how does a cell work, you might start with a fundamental problem, such as how do we cost-effectively make cells, [thereby] creating a shorter path toward translation into a commercial product or a new therapy for patients.” Starting with a market or clinical need requires educational resources as well as a cultural shift. The Knight Campus will offer both, with new degree programs, including those in bioengineering and applied science, and opportunities for undergraduate research. It will also provide an economic impact to the state of Oregon, through the development of technology and startup companies. “This, in my view, is going to make the UO one of the premier places in the nation that people identify when they think of institutions that are effectively translating research into real-world impact,” Guldberg says. Making Sense of Big Data We are swimming in data. Many more of our actions—and interactions—are now recorded and measured. From our online shopping to our Facebook “likes,” from tracking the weather to tracking our daily steps, today’s technology captures mind-boggling amounts of data at the speed of light. Advanced algorithms and computers are helping analyze these data to see patterns and help us make decisions in ways never before possible. This is the era of “big data,” and it touches every corner of academia, as well: institutions are being separated into those that capitalize on the vast potential of the analysis of big data, and those that don’t. The UO is squarely in the former group, with a plan to become a leader in “data science”—the analysis and use of big data. Under the Presidential Initiative in Data Science—a novel effort in UO history to connect every school and college under one academic idea—funding and other support will go to faculty across campus for education, training, and coordinated research in data science. Researchers and students across campus will be supported through this initiative to create new training opportunities and new interdisciplinary research projects. By building an onramp to the superhighway of big data—both figuratively and through the hardware and software that improve connectivity—UO scientists and students will crunch numbers faster and more economically. Research projects that once were laborious and resource-heavy will move to supercomputers that run the same tests digitally, eliminating costs and saving time. Students in disciplines as different as business and biology will collaborate and will be trained in techniques that will prepare them for the skyrocketing number of new jobs using data science in these and many other fields. In effect, the UO will become an intellectual center for tackling some of the world’s most pressing questions. Consider Leslie Leve, a professor in the College of Education who specializes in child development. Leve is examining how a wide swath of environmental and biological factors influence child health and obesity. Historically, that meant the use of questionnaires and interviews to understand issues in the home or at school. Today, Leve can tap large amounts of data across disciplines. She is collaborating with biologist Bill Cresko, director of the data science initiative, and fellow biologist Brendan Bohannan to use gut and skin microbiome samples to examine how genetics and biology influence child development; she is also working with geographers who use geocoding to identify geographic factors such as access to healthy food and clean water. “When we blend expertise across disciplines and merge data science with more traditional methods, we can really elevate our research and deepen our understanding of these issues,” Leve says. For centuries, liberal-arts schools have sought to provide students with the broadest education possible to help them succeed in the world. That world is changing rapidly. Says Cresko: “In many ways the 21st century requires the expansion of that liberal-arts education to involve computation, to involve data science. Our long history of being an interdisciplinary liberal-arts research university positions us well to be a leader in this revolution.” Welcoming the Worlds “It will mean that we’ve grown up,” Ellen Schmidt-Devlin says, when asked what the new Hayward Field will mean for her. The cofounder and director of the UO’s Sports Product Management Program speaks with authority. She ran at Hayward from 1976 to 1979, was mentored by renowned coach Bill Bowerman, is an AIAW All-American and number six on UO’s all-time outdoor mile list, and spent almost three decades leading divisions for Nike. When it opens in 2020, the new Hayward Field, made possible by Phil and Penny Knight and others, will enable the UO to recruit Oregon’s top athletes and those from across the world, Schmidt-Devlin says, as students and competitors at international events. Hayward will set world-class standards, becoming an optimal experience for both athlete and spectator, with permanent seating for more than 12,000 and a capacity that will top out at nearly 30,000 for special events. In 2021, one of the largest worldwide television audiences for the year will be trained on the IAAF World Outdoor Championships; nearly 1 billion viewers will behold the UO, and its new Hayward Field. “What will make this stadium particularly special in the world of track and field is that, unlike almost all the other major track venues worldwide, it is specifically designed for that sport only,” says Jim Petsche, project manager. “That keeps the athletes close to the spectators, and spectators close to the athletes, making for a more exciting experience for both.” The stadium will join the science evolution at the UO when the Department of Human Physiology moves to the northwest corner of the practice level. The department will enjoy new offices, conference rooms, and research and lab areas, including a roll-up door to the 140-meter indoor straightaway, allowing students and researchers close proximity to the athletes they study. The new facilities will support research in biomechanics, drawing the best scientists and pairing them with the best track-and-field athletes. An indoor, state-of-the-art training center will serve student-athletes. Schmidt-Devlin believes science leads to business innovations, and in this way Hayward will, like the Knight Campus, also lead an entrepreneurial tack. “We are the Silicon Valley of the sports and outdoor industry here in Oregon,” she says. “We own it. The state of Oregon can continue to lead. Our facilities need to follow.” A century of history is palpable at Hayward, where 20 world records were set. The new stadium will pay homage to the past through exhibits and displays housed in the field’s 165-foot-tall landmark tower and adjacent museum that will honor the history of the venue and the people who coached and competed here. Those who have experienced the roar of the crowd at the historic Hayward will never forget it, but the Hayward Field of 2020 will set new records if athletes worldwide dream of competing there, if our understanding of physiology is transformed, if new sports products revolutionize the industry. “In the end, we had to do just exactly as Bowerman coached his athletes with runners on their tail,” says Petsche: “Don’t look back, look ahead.” —By Tara Rae Miner Tara Rae Miner, BA ’96 (English), is a freelance writer and editor in Portland. She has finished two Eugene marathons at Hayward Field. Going Up The Knight Campus, Hayward Field, a data science initiative, and shifting student demographics are just four indicators of growth at the UO. Other efforts affirming the university’s rise: To assist in raising the four-year graduation rate by 10 percent by 2020, the UO will nearly double the number of professional advisors on campus and has adopted a data-driven advising platform that helps advisors and students collaborate to achieve graduation goals. The School of Journalism and Communication launched the Media Center for Science and Technology to research ways to convey scientific concepts, train students for the high-tech storytelling careers of the future, and enhance public understanding of science and technology. The Urbanism Next Center, supported by the Presidential Fund for Excellence, is working with US cities and is leading research examining the impacts of autonomous vehicles, ecommerce, and the sharing economy. The UO—collaborating with OSU, OHSU, PSU and the state—joined the Oregon Fiber Partnership, to build and operate a statewide optical network to advance research and innovation, education, healthcare, government services, and broadband development for all Oregonians. Online education: The UO will hire a first-ever associate vice provost for online and distance education to guide online- and distance-education strategy. Through new hires, the Prevention Science Institute, based in the College of Education, is expanding research into the genetic nature of obesity. Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall, a $39 million hub for the College of Arts and Sciences opening in 2019, will be home to a new paradigm of integrated career and academic advising, serving all first-year students across campus. Chapman Hall, academic home of the Clark Honors College, underwent a $10.5 million renovation to create cutting-edge, high-tech classrooms and improve other learning and collaboration spaces. The $2.2 million Black Cultural Center, slated to open in fall 2019, will accommodate studying, student meetings, and more while showcasing cultural pieces and artwork that celebrate Black heritage. Renovations continue on Pacific Hall, the UO’s original science building, to add modern labs, enable the recruitment of new faculty, and expand research opportunities for undergraduates.
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President's year-end message cites progress and work remaining
First published in around the O on June 13th 2018. UO President Michael H. Schill sent the following message to the campus community June 13: Dear University of Oregon community members, As we close out the 2017-18 academic year, I offer my warm congratulations to all of our graduates. I also want to thank everyone—faculty, advisors, graduate instructors and researchers, and staff—who helped our graduates reach the finish line. I look forward to standing in Matthew Knight Arena and watching those caps fly, as the class of 2018 prepares to take flight. Together, we accomplished quite a bit this year. We took big leaps forward in advancing our academic enterprise: we broke ground on the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact and hired a permanent executive director to lead this extraordinary effort to further the mission of science in the service of society; we invested in promising new academic programs—from data science and science media to embedding education researchers in high schools—and we continued to hire and invest in world-class scholars in fields such as obesity prevention, Black studies, anthropology, and volcanology to name a few. It is fitting that the year was bookended at the start by the groundbreaking for Tykeson Hall and at the end by the announcement that we will hire two dozen new advisors to work in that same building when it opens in 2019 as part of our new expansion and integration of academic and career counseling. I am incredibly excited to join with the College of Arts and Sciences, Undergraduate Studies, and Student Life in an initiative that will support student success from the moment they step foot on campus to the time students leave and beyond. There is nothing more important. As someone who will probably go down in history as the least athletic University of Oregon president, I joined with many of you in cheering on the achievements of our scholar-athletes, both on the field and off. In particular, I was thrilled and inspired by our Pac-12 champion softball and women’s basketball teams who demonstrated the very best in intercollegiate athletics time and time again. I also enjoyed watching our students excel in activities as varied as producing art, making music, and acting. For our university to soar we need to become more diverse and inclusive. Toward that end, over the course of the past year every school, college, and administrative unit created Diversity Action Plans in their corner of campus. We opened a new Native American academic residential community, announced that we would build a Black Cultural Center, and redoubled efforts to recruit and support underrepresented students, all of which was on display during last week’s Showcase Oregon. Like most universities across the United States, we experienced tension between the rights and values of free expression and the need to create a safe and inclusive environment on an increasingly diverse campus. With few exceptions, these tensions were resolved in a way that should make us proud. We also held robust discussions from a variety of perspectives and disciplines during our Freedom of Expression Event series that explored our differences and commonalities. As I wrap up my third year as president, I have been reflecting on what I’ve learned about our students and this paragraph is specifically addressed to them. You are impressive, brilliant, passionate, and entrepreneurial. While the vast majority of you love being part of our UO community, some of you feel marginalized and unsafe on our campus. Some of you do not feel heard or supported, or fear speaking up for what you need or believe. I am reminded that we, as an institution, and I, personally, need to listen more, engage with you in a more supportive way, and strive to better understand all perspectives and needs. This will be a priority for me and everyone on our campus going forward. I want all of you—every student and every member of our campus community—to benefit from the amazing wave of success our university is riding. We have some of the greatest minds solving big problems—from protecting our earth and making our bodies work better to creating new products and advocating for justice. We are making a difference, making the world more beautiful and interesting, and preparing a generation of leaders. We are, in short, part of something really special here at the University of Oregon. I am proud to be your president. Thank you for a wonderful academic year. Enjoy the summer. Sincerely, Michael H. SchillPresident and Professor of Law
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Trustees to get closer look at academic investments, funding
First published in Around the O on June 5th 2018. The Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon will take a deep dive into how the university invests in academics during the regular spring meeting, June 7-8. The Academic and Student Affairs Committee will hear details on the recently unveiled 2019 Institutional Hiring Plan that authorizes 56 searches for faculty members across a variety of disciplines. According to Jayanth Banavar, provost and senior vice president, the plan is not only a reflection of the president and provost’s priorities for the university but also each dean’s academic vision. The plan also includes prospects for collaboration and synergy among schools and colleges that emerged during the dean and faculty group discussions. It is intended to be a continuation of efforts to hire tenure-track faculty who will enhance the UO’s scholarly profile and academic excellence and who will share a commitment to student success. Banavar will later talk with the Finance and Facilities Committee on the new academic allocation model, in which each school or college is given a single operating allocation for the fiscal year based on a number of core components. The model will make schools and colleges responsible for creating an internal, balanced budget based on its operating allocation. Previously, the university followed an activity-based budget model, primarily driven by student activity such as student credit hours, the location of enrolled majors and graduate students, and earned degrees. In addition to academic-specific funding, the trustees will consider a proposed fiscal year 2019 budget and related expenditures. The expenditure proposal includes more than $1 billion in operating expenses and $183 million in capital expenses. Other items under discussion by trustees: Student success initiatives. Presidential initiative in data science. University Housing capital plan. Student conduct code revisions. Transform IT implementation. Full agendas and board materials are available at https://trustees.uoregon.edu/node/26. Committee meetings begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, June 7, and the full board begins at 9 a.m. Friday, June 8, all in the Guistina Ballroom in the Ford Alumni Center.
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State grant helps expand UO Student Veterans Center services
First published in Around the O on March 7th, 2018. A grant awarded to the University of Oregon’s Student Veterans Center by the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs will help the center expand its programs and resources. During the 2017 session, Oregon legislators unanimously passed Senate Bill 143, which allocated $1 million to expand campus veteran resource centers at Oregon community colleges and public universities. In addition, the legislature allocated funds to hire a statewide campus veteran coordinator to provide training and technical assistance to campus veteran resource coordinators. Justine Carpenter, the UO’s director of multicultural and identity-based support services, was one of many public universities representative who testified in support of the bill. The Student Veterans Center provides support and services to more than 400 UO student veterans and family members eligible for military benefits, including the GI Bill. The $54,000 grant funds a half-time program coordinator, additional computers and technology, expanded student veteran engagement events and increased veteram welcome sessions — the center’s version of Week of Welcome — to include winter and spring terms. The grant also expands the Peer Advising Veterans Education program, which matches new veteran students on campus with experienced UO peers. “The overarching goal of the Student Veterans Center is to ensure we connect student veterans — many who are attending the UO directly after serving in the military — with support and resources that will help them be successful,” said Maria Kalnbach, coordinator of nontraditional and veteran student engagement and success. “This grant is a good step in helping us build a robust program that attracts more veterans to the UO.” Trent Goodman served in the Marine Corps as a radio communications operator; he is currently a senior majoring in cinema studies. He made a point of making connections with fellow veterans when he first arrived at the UO from Illinois and soon found a home at the Student Veterans Center. “It’s a place to take a break, decompress, get advice, use a computer and help each other with homework,” Goodman said. Now serving as the PAVE coordinator, he and his fellow peer advisors are currently reaching out to, and serving as mentors for, 100 first-year student veterans on campus in Eugene and Portland. “We share advice about the UO or about anything we’re asked,” he said. “We pride ourselves on getting answers to the questions we don’t know the answer to immediately.” The UO PAVE program is one of 38 programs on campuses across the country and is supported by a national team. It was just starting when Goodman arrived. “PAVE has grown and become more professional at the UO, especially in connecting people to resources,” Goodman said. The Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs provides statewide veterans services, including training and certification of county veteran service officers and managing appellate federal benefit claims; programs for aging veterans, including two homes for veterans; and a home loan program that provides low-interest loans for Oregon veterans. Currently, Oregon is home to approximately 325,000 veterans.
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Construction starts on UO's Knight Campus
March 2, 2018 The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact began its transition from vision to reality Friday as heavy equipment started clearing the way for the ambitious project. Dozens of state and local dignitaries, university officials, faculty and staff at the groundbreaking event applauded as UO President Michael H. Schill gave workers the signal to start tearing down an existing building on what will be the site of the futuristic campus on the north side of Franklin Boulevard. “This is an important moment in the history of our university as we create a new path to success, impact and opportunity for our students and the state,” Schill said. The effort to rethink research, science education and innovation is made possible by a $500 million lead gift from Penny and Phil Knight. This game-changing initiative is specifically designed to fast-track scientific discoveries and the process of turning those discoveries into innovations that improve the quality of life for people in Oregon, the nation and beyond. UO officials also delivered news from Salem that state lawmakers had approved an additional $20 million of state bonds toward the project. The Legislature in 2017 approved $50 million in state bonds for the campus. “The magnitude of the Knight Campus’ impact is strongly tied to state support. With $70 million in state capital funding, we are ahead of where we expected to be at this time,” said Patrick Phillips, acting executive director of the Knight Campus. “We are very grateful for the state’s support of this once-in-a-generation initiative.” As part of the 2018 funding package, the UO has pledged to use Oregon-manufactured wood products — particularly cross-laminated timber — to further support the state’s economy. The university will incorporate the wood beams in many public-facing areas of the building. The first phase of the project includes a $225 million, 160,000-square-foot structure, which will be built on the north side of Franklin Boulevard between Onyx Street and Riverfront Parkway. It is slated to open in early 2020. The innovative campus stands to have economic benefits of $80 million in annual statewide economic activity. Over the next 10 years, the Knight Campus will house an estimated 30 principal researchers and their teams, generating an estimated 750 new jobs. Representatives from Hoffman Construction, the general contractor, and the architecture team of Portland-based Bora and New York-based Ennead were also on hand for the event. The groundbreaking comes a little more than 16 months after the Knight Campus announcement. The initiative will feature cutting-edge labs and open, collaborative spaces. It is expected to attract top researchers in fields new to the UO — such as bio-engineers, computational scientists and immunologists — who will join forces with established UO researchers in the life, physical and prevention sciences, as well as those in management and communications. —By Jim Murez, University Communications
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