Johnson

Transcending boundaries — no passports needed

“So who cares?”  That’s a question that I like to ask scientists and researchers, and I don’t mean it in an insulting way.  Fundamentally, if nobody cares about the work you did, you’ve probably just wasted time, energy, and resources in doing it.

How or why somebody cares is another question.  The results of research may “push back the frontiers of science,” leading researchers in a distant lab to change the way they plan or interpret their experiments, which leads to more research that influences other scientists to change the way they do things, and so on.   As the process repeats itself, we build new fundamental knowledge that eventually solves problems and often leads to new products for the marketplace, many of which were never anticipated at the beginning.

At the other extreme, the results of research may be very applied and lead immediately to the solution of a problem or the creation of a new product.

Regardless of how fundamental or how applied research is, getting students involved in it creates other benefits.  Students who are engaged in research as undergraduates are more likely to stay in school and graduate on time.

You have to agree, though, that if the answer to “who cares?” is “nobody,” that’s not good.  If nobody cites the paper you publish as a building block for their work, and nobody buys your new widget, then there might just be a problem.

At UND, we don’t hear that answer.

What we do hear is that the research and scholarly work done by UND faculty are important to people both within the state and around the globe.  The work done by our faculty transcends political borders, physical borders (the Earth vs. outer space), and biological borders (work done with cells or laboratory mice helps us improve human health).  This issue of UND Discovery highlights a variety of research and creative projects whose impact transcends all kinds of borders — and you don’t need your passport to read it.

Phyllis Johnson, Vice President for Research and Economic Development