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An early lesson
Thirty-five years ago I was a shy science nerd at Newton Middle School in
California. See exhibit A, above, my student ID from this time. Running across
this card triggered a recollection: I was among a group of “gifted” pupils who
took a field trip into the city to take a lesson from a business professor. We
interacted in a role-playing game in which we were each assigned to run a
different business. I do not recall the details of the game. I do remember
the professor’s evaluation when the game was over: “You all get a big fat ‘F’.”
Exercising our American instinct to compete, we had withheld our resources for
fear that someone else would get ahead. The lesson we learned was that if we had
looked for ways to share, trade, and partner, all of our businesses could have
prospered. Working together, we could all have been “winners.”
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Teamwork works at the CBE
Cooperation and collaboration have been effective strategies for us at the
Center for Biofilm Engineering for many years now, and this spirit is as alive
as ever. In a culture that spotlights the individual and inculcates competition,
we need occasional reminders to continue working in teams and trusting in the
payoff of freely sharing ideas and expertise. So I would like to take this
opportunity to reaffirm, for those of us here at the CBE, and also for our
constituents and colleagues elsewhere, my commitment to promoting an environment
of partnership.
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Mutual benefits go beyond the CBE
Here are some of the ways that the CBE practices and facilitates partnerships.
Many of our federal research grants involve formal collaborations with groups at
other institutions. These partners currently include the University of
Washington, University of Minnesota, Washington State University, McGill
University, University of Miami, Virginia Tech, University of Oklahoma,
Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, University of Illinois, Cornell University,
Southwest Regional Wound Care Center, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence
Berkley National Lab, Oak Ridge National Lab, and the Inland Northwest Regional
Alliance. The CBE ran projects for 38 (!) different company sponsors in the past
year and currently counts 32 companies as formal
Industrial Associates. These
numbers indicate the remarkable breadth and depth of our partnership with
industry. At our semi-annual
Technical Advisory Conferences (TAC), we bring
together academics and industry representatives in a forum that encourages the
flow of ideas, networking, and cross-pollination of concepts and methods across
disparate disciplines or applications. I would like to continue the informal
workshop-style meeting format we launched in 2007 with the
Biofilm Mechanics
Workshop. Meetings such as this, with a convivial and creative atmosphere and
modest size, can bring researchers together to brainstorm and network for mutual
benefit.
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Our partnerships span the world
Another example of partnership includes the visitors who come from across the
country and around the world to spend time at the CBE. These students or faculty
on sabbatical come to learn about biofilms, get training in biofilm methods,
work on joint projects, or develop collaborative proposals. In the past couple
of years, the CBE has hosted visitors from Japan, Germany, Chile, France, Korea,
Mali, Brazil, Spain, Russia, Switzerland, Ireland, and multiple states. Our
visitors bring a fresh perspective, distinct expertise, and lots of enthusiasm
to the CBE.
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Join us!
We are all familiar with the historical model of the scientist as lone genius.
Think of Newton, Darwin, Pasteur, or Einstein. These extraordinary individuals
certainly deserve to be celebrated. At the opening of the 21st century, a
collaborative model presents itself: one in which lasting contributions to
science and technology are discovered by people working together in teams at the
rich boundaries between disciplines. I invite you to join us in exploration of
this new
territory through partnerships here at the CBE.
Posted March 4, 2008 |
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Read Director's Message:
A Vision for the Future, posted August 31, 2005 |
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