ODU sets its sights on cracking list of Top 100 public research universities

–Steve Daniel

Last year, President Roseann Runte presented the campus community with a challenge that she terms “a lofty and serious goal”: to become one of the nation’s Top 100 public research universities.

In support of this challenge, Old Dominion’s latest five-year strategic plan includes the objectives of creating an environment that encourages research and creative activity, and improving the quality of graduate programs.

The strategic plan, says Runte, “is an attempt to recognize the potential of our faculty, our students and our region, and to further our mission of changing lives. Our plan harnesses technology for the use of our community. It promotes a community of scholars who share a common mission of learning and discovery.”

The plan, in truth, reflects an agenda that Old Dominion has espoused for the past several years. Noting that the university has already achieved many milestones in research, Runte believes now that aspiring to reach a quantifiable goal will both boost ODU’s stature and result in dividends for economic development in Hampton Roads.

Regarding the latter, Old Dominion’s Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) is a prime example. According to a recent economic impact study, modeling and simulation activities at VMASC and other agencies contribute nearly $500 million to the Hampton Roads economy. VMASC’s applications range from the medical to the transportation to the military arena.

ODU’s work at the Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics, developed as a collaborative initiative with Eastern Virginia Medical School, is also an important addition to the area. The center’s mission is to increase scientific knowledge and understanding of how electromagnetic fields and ionized gases interact with biological cells and to apply this knowledge to the development of medical diagnostics and therapeutics, and to environmental decontamination.

Recent pulsed electric field experiments at the center, led by biophysicist Richard Nuccitelli and center director Karl Schoenbach, may well be an important step toward human cancer treatments that involve no drugs and produce no lasting side effects.

Ongoing research at ODU’s Full-Scale Wind Tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center represents another initiative that benefits both students and the outside community. A recent focus has been on expanding and transitioning the facility’s unique aerodynamic test capabilities to the diverse transportation system applications of the private sector, including NASCAR.

Another recent development in the promotion of research at Old Dominion was the hiring of Patrick Hatcher, who won the American Chemical Society’s 2005 Geochemistry Division Medal. Hatcher, who became the ODU Batten Endowed Chair in Physical Sciences in January, is credited with major contributions in organic and environmental geochemistry. His work involves investigating the nature and reactivity of complex natural organic matter in terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

Hatcher is one of 10 Batten Chairs at ODU, a title that confers distinction and rewards expertise. In 2003, Landmark Communications founder Frank Batten gave the university $32 million to increase its capacity to attract and retain top researchers and faculty, and to support research endeavors in general, with a particular emphasis on engineering and science. Batten’s generous gift, says Runte, has given Old Dominion the ability to aspire to higher goals.

As the university looks to the future, it is also mindful of its past. ODU’s research history dates back nearly 50 years ago, when Dutchman Jacques Zaneveld arrived at the Norfolk Division in 1959 with his own goal of building a program in oceanography.

He obtained federal funding for research, and in 1964-65 generated publicity for the school when he first took students on a research trip to Antarctica.

Through his work and dedication, the Institute of Oceanography was founded in 1966, the forerunner of ODU’s nationally recognized oceanography program.

Many other notable figures have since appeared on the university’s research landscape, including biologist Daniel Sonenshine, who became internationally known for his studies of ticks and the diseases they carry; engineer Robert Ash, a noted expert on Mars whose research on behalf of NASA Langley led to the reduction of air friction on aircraft; and Melvin Williams, an internationally recognized researcher in the area of endurance athletics who founded both the Human Performance Laboratory and Wellness Institute at ODU.

As part of its focus on expanding research efforts – the university last year topped $40 million in external funding for research and sponsored programs – Old Dominion recently broke ground for Innovation Research Park @ ODU, an $80 million economic development project that will bring together university intellectual capital, faculty and students with private-sector companies to pursue research, technology development and business-creation opportunities.

As Old Dominion looks ahead to achieving new milestones in research on the way to a Top 100 ranking, Runte makes the following pledge: “Wherever this university reaches, our efforts will be marked by creativity, construction, discovery and originality.”