It's no challenge to divine why Dean David Carl Wilson was thrilled to announce Peter H. Raven as the College of Arts & Sciences' newest advisory board member.

Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden since 1971, is a world-renowned scientist, botanist, author, and professor, acclaimed for his scientific acumen, strategic insight, and concern for biodiversity.

His accomplishments, published works, and leadership positions are too numerous to list here, but suffice to say he has led — and received honors from — prestigious organizations on most of the planet's continents. He has been described as one of the people most responsible for humankind's concern for other organisms on the planet. Any consideration for the future health and diversity of our planet's life forms should not be undertaken without weighing what he has to say.

“Business needs academic research — not to solve its problems and to develop the commercial products of the future, but rather to discover the fundamental principles on which such products can be based."

It is exciting for the College of Arts & Sciences, then, that Raven is now associated with Webster and its role in the St. Louis region's science-driven growth.

"Webster makes a terrific contribution to the community and, through its network of overseas campuses, to the world," Raven says. "We have employed many Webster graduates and come to understand what it does for St. Louis very well."

What Webster does, in this instance, is educate bachelor's- and master's-level scientists who are needed to keep the region's biotech economy thriving.

"Industry and research units badly need well-prepared graduates at those levels, for which a great scarcity of manpower exists," Raven says. "Even back in the 1980s, in the review of biology for the National Research Council that I chaired, we concluded and pointed out that degrees short of the Ph.D. in biology were often 'wasted,' — in the sense that those degrees tended not to be taken seriously by universities or potential employers. Yet that is precisely where a great deal of the need lies."

Raven says the engineering field, by contrast, properly regards similar degrees as of fundamental importance.

The Importance of Fundamental Science: Where is the Bell Labs of today?

Just as Raven was a prescient voice for the importance of preserving biodiversity for aesthetic and longevity reasons, Raven has been a canary in the coal mine for the importance of science and technology in a globalized economy.

"Science and technology are, very simply, the engine of our economy," he says. "They drive two-thirds of our economic growth. We are in a world market that is highly competitive, with emerging powers such as China and India turning out many more graduates in these areas than we do.

"If we want to maintain our preeminence in these areas, we are going to have to work together to feature them at all levels in our educational system and in the business community."

Asked what's missing, on a strategic level, to make this happen, Raven cites "public trust; a lack of manpower; a government that does not sufficiently value the field; an industry that is too reluctant to invest in basic research and to take risks."

"Where is the equivalent of Bell Labs today?" Raven laments. "Synergy between business and universities" is a must, he says, but businesses must support universities in basic research — and not strictly commercial, applied research.

"Business needs academic research — not to solve its problems and to develop the commercial products of the future, but rather to discover the fundamental principles on which such products can be based."

Government 'Tragically Underfunds' Science

Though these challenges are national - and even international - in scope, they sadly have a parallel at the local level.

Missouri suffers from an on-going, self-contradicting approach to the intersection of science, economy, and public policy. Stem cell research, for example, which Raven says "should be embraced by all those who love life for its enormous potential to improve and save lives," is so far being choked of its potential.

Across the board, Raven says, the state simply does not fund enough fundamental research.

"We cannot move forward in the modern world on a 'low tax, low service' basis, although this has become almost a State mantra," he says. "It simply doesn't work. It's not about making new commercial products, but rather about gaining the skills and building the kind of attractive workplaces in which discoveries of the future are made right here."

Despite having great, talented people, Raven says local public universities are "tragically underfunded. They do not receive the support that would allow them to do their work well and empower generations of Missourians for a dynamic and vigorous future."

This is where Webster, with its own commitment to biological sciences, can help.

Back to the top