Higher education, high pursuits

Dr. Stephen Davies, an associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at UC Denver's Anschutz campus, uses a confocal laser microscope to create detailed three-dimensional images of cells such as the astrocyte visible on the screen at right. Davies hopes his research with stem cells will lead to breakthroughs in repairing spinal-cord injuries.

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  CSU’s Patrick Shipman, a mathematics professor and co-director of the Laboratory for Mathematics in the Sciences, at work on an experiment with chemistry student Juan Martinez.
  (Courtesy of CSU)
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  UC Boulder Associate Professor Tin Tin Su, who works in the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department, holds a vial of fruit flies that she uses for her research into a CU drug-screening technology to identify novel therapies for cancer. The monitor is a microscopic view of fruit fly cells.
  (Courtesy of CU)
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  Assistant Professor Hang (Hubert) Yin, right, works with a graduate student in his lab in the chemistry and biochemistry department at UC Boulder. The Yin research lab works on the interface of chemistry, biology and engineering with particular focuses on structure-based drug design, cell signaling biochemistry, biotechnology development, and membrane protein simulations.
  (Courtesy of Glenn Asakawa/UC)

Universities in Colorado and Wyoming have generated tens of billions of dollars in economic activity over the years and will no doubt do so for years to come, even as prospects for state and federal funding dim.

Technologies developed at the universities – from biotechnology to renewable-energy solutions – have formed the basis of scores of new companies in just the past few years.

Revenue from royalties based on the sales of products protected by university patents, including legal settlements, totals more than $100 million.

The University of Colorado alone is among the top 10 universities nationwide in the number of companies created.

These universities provide essential research and train a large number of scientists and engineers. That, of course, is why federal funding is crucial for them.

At CSU, for example, more than 80 percent of the university's research funding comes from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, said Bill Farland, vice president of research.

The rest of its funding comes from the private sector and foundations; a small amount comes from the university itself to match some of the grants