WSU Pitches Research Wares Cites Economic Benefit Of Scientific Research During Demonstration For Chamber Of Commerce
Washington State University doesn’t use its 40-foot shock wave gun to test nuclear weapons components in Spokane, and no one expects it ever will.
None of WSU’s “plastic wood” composites are produced in Spokane because the school’s Wood Materials and Engineering Laboratory is in Pullman.
But these are small details to WSU, which Friday buttressed its desire to grow in Spokane with a demonstration of the scientific and economic wonders that an unleashed research university offers.
“For every $1 million we spend on research here in Spokane, you receive $2 million in economic benefits,” WSU President Sam Smith told about 50 members of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the forum on WSU scientific research.
WSU officials said the four-hour forum was scheduled months ago by the chamber and co-host George Nethercutt, Republican congressman from Spokane.
But the timing was ideal for WSU, which is trying to win public support for a recent proposal by state Sen. Jim West, R-Spokane, to give WSU control of Eastern Washington University.
Eastern rejects the merger idea, saying that a single university system would not increase the research and economic benefits in Spokane.
Bill Gray, dean of WSU Spokane, said the university’s 66 faculty members in Spokane do about $5 million in health, education and criminal justice research.
The entire university, with 1,800 faculty members, annually attracts $105 million in grants. That includes a $10 million federal grant received last summer from the U.S. Department of Energy to create the Institute for Shock Physics.
Yogendra Gupta, director of the institute, said shock physics research is helping the government safely stockpile the nation’s nuclear weapons.
“Thousands of warheads exist and the owners want to stockpile them and make sure they will work if they need them,” he said.
Researchers in Pullman hurl a projectile at 3,000 mph down a 40-foot gun to recreate the effects of an explosion. Instruments measure the effect of the shock on various materials, which provides a gauge of the integrity of components used to make and hold nuclear weapons.
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