Economy
The University of Oklahoma employs over 10,700 personnel across three campuses, making it a significant driver of Norman’s economy. The campus is a center for scientific and technological research, having contributed over $277 million to such programs in 2009.
Norman is also home of the National Weather Center, a cooperative research effort between the University of Oklahoma and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that houses a number of weather- and climate-related organizations; the city is also the proposed location of a future National Weather Museum. As a result of this on-going academic and public weather research, several private meteorological businesses are present in the city, including Weathernews Americas, Inc., Vieux and Associates, Inc., Weather Decision Technologies, WeatherBank, Inc., and Computational Geosciences, Inc.
In addition to weather, Norman is also a center for other scientific ventures both public and private. The Oklahoma Geological Survey, which conducts geological research, and the Oklahoma Renewable Energy Council, which is a public-private alliance that is attempting to foster renewable energy applications, both make the city their home. SouthWest NanoTechnologies is a producer of single-walled carbon nanotubes, and Bergey Windpower is a leading supplier of small wind turbines.
Other major employers in the city include Norman Regional Health System, Norman Public Schools, Johnson Controls, Griffin Memorial Hospital, Hitachi, Astellas Pharma Technologies, Albon Engineering, Xyant Technology, MSCI, Office Max National Sales Center, SITEL, the United States Postal Service National Center for Employee Development, Sysco Corporation, and AT&T.
University North Park, a lifestyle center with planned development on over 12 million square feet (1.1 km2) of land, is located on 24th Ave NW along the I-35 corridor between Robinson Street and Tecumseh Road. Begun in 2006, the project will feature 2 miles (3.2 km) of parks, offices, and high-end retail once completed.
Read more about this topic: Norman, Oklahoma
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)