History of Arizona State University - Building A Research University

Building A Research University

National Science Foundation grant applications from Arizona State College in the 1950s and early 1960s often focused on teacher training programs or “Summer Institutes” in various science disciplines. However there were several faculty who served as the university pioneers in attracting federal grants for scientific research, mainly in the fields of biology, water management, meteoritics and solid state science.

In the mid-1940s Dr. Herbert Stahnke received research support from the Arizona State Legislature through two appropriations bills for research projects relating to scorpions, snakes and other venomous animals. This work led to establishment of the Poisonous Animals Research Laboratory in 1945, which produced anti-venom for venomous species native to the southwest region. Stahnke’s zeal was honored by the college in this period since he was one of a handful of faculty writing research grants at that time, and he eventually received support from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. His provocative research led to a number of television appearances and a lecture tour of Europe in 1961. In the early 1970s Stahnke’s laboratory was threatened with elimination when university administrators questioned the quality of his anti-venom and the role of public universities in providing this service, but the lab remained in operation until 1988.

H. H. Nininger was a lay scientist and collector of meteorites who became an internationally recognized expert on the subject. In the late-1950s he expressed interest in an association with ASU to support his research. While an early NSF proposal for Nininger’s meteoritics field research failed, he established a relationship with George Boyd (the university’s first Director of Research) that ultimately resulted in a grant of $240,000 from the National Science Foundation for the purchase of the Nininger Meteorite Collection, the largest meteorite collection hosted by a university and considered among the top five in the world. Given Nininger’s world-class stature as an expert in meteoritics, and a general re-examination of science education in America in response to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite, ASU’s acquisition of this collection in 1960 caught the attention of NSF and NASA.

Soon afterward Dr. Carleton Moore was appointed to serve as the first director of ASU’s Center for Meteorite Studies, which exists to this day. Dr. Moore acquired thirty-five research grants in materials science and geology from NASA, NSF and USGS from 1963-1987. Moore was selected to evaluate moon dust and moon rocks acquired from NASA’s Apollo missions in the 1970s, and his research was particularly well-publicized. This work resulted in a large number of public speaking opportunities in Arizona, and set the stage for externally funded research in planetary geology and astrophysics by subsequent ASU faculty.

University scientific research also required laboratories, and founding dean Lee P. Thompson of the College of Engineering established collaborations with several industrial firms like General Electric, Motorola and AiResearch that enabled the purchase of expensive and specialized equipment. Early labs were built to support research in fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and turbine engine development. The results of this research facilitated development of marketable technologies by Arizona businesses.

In 1960 the arrival of ASU President G. Homer Durham from the University of Utah marked the beginning of attempts to actively recruit research science faculty. Appointments of well-credentialed faculty such as Carleton Moore, Charles M. Woolf, Troy Péwé and LeRoy Eyring confirmed ASU’s ability to attract top notch researchers. These faculty members recognized the potential of ASU and were willing to build the infrastructure that eventually attracted many talented research faculty and resulted in the award of hundreds of science PhD's.

Meanwhile President Durham also led efforts to expand ASU’s curriculum by establishing several new colleges (the College of Fine Arts, the College of Law, the College of Nursing, and the School of Social Work) and through reorganizing what became the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.