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Chapter 10. Education and Outreach

Technology Transfer, Entrepreneurship, and Other Forms of Outreach

Although the institutionally-supported education and outreach efforts of CIRES are focused on the K -12 activities, throughout the history of CIRES individual investigators have also provided society the benefits of their research and knowledge through a variety of activities: patents, the formation of technology-based companies, participation in national and state advisory panels and committees, and as officers and other forms of participation in the major international and national scientific organizations in their disciplines. These contributions are in addition to the obvious educational function of the thousands of CIRES publications in the literature of science and technology. A complete listing of all such contributions would contain many hundreds of entries, so only a sampling is presented here.

Robert E. Sievers, former CIRES director and director of the University's Environmental Program, has been active in both invention and Entrepreneurship. In 1984, he co-founded Sievers Instruments, Inc., which was acquired in 1996 by Ionics, Inc. and now has 150 employees. In 1990, Alexander F. H. Goetz, director of CSES, and Brian Curtiss (see chapter six), founded Analytical Spectral Devices, Inc., to develop, manufacture, and market portable field instrumentation for spectrometry. That company now employs 31 people. A third example of a company founded by CIRES scientists is 2b Technologies, formed by John Birks and Mark Bollinger, a former graduate student in CIRES.

Volunteer service to the State of Colorado and the nation by accepting membership and leadership roles on advisory and review panels and committees is a normal activity of working scientists. Committees of the National Research Council span the range of CIRES interests and CIRES personnel have served on or chaired many of these. As the targets of the reports from these committees are often the federal agencies that fund research, the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the White House, and the U.S. Congress, the potential of work in this setting for a major impact on American science is great. In addition, some federal agencies have their own advisory panels of outside specialists. An especially important role played by many CIRES scientists is membership on the peer review panels of funding agencies, especially the National Science Foundation. By all of these activities, CIRES is able to influence the national science agenda.

In addition to patents, the results of research are even more often made known to the public through the annual meetings, conferences, and publications supported by the national and international scientific organizations that play a key role in professional life in all scientific fields. The contributions of these organizations represent a high form of education and outreach, for colleagues in the field, the public, and for the ultimate users of research findings. Service to these organizations as elected offi- cers, committee members, editors, and organizers of assemblies and conferences is recognized and encouraged by both the University and the federal government as appropriate activities of their employees.

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