Penley Panel

I recently spoke with the Chronicle of Higher Education in an Audio Extra about the innovative ways Colorado State University is working to improve technology transfer. Universities often struggle to get their research to the marketplace, but at Colorado State, the new Supercluster model for public/private partnerships — enterprise-based alliances of researchers, economists, and business experts advancing innovative research — effectively addresses today’s technology transfer challenges. CSU’s Clean Energy Supercluster, the University’s third, was officially launched March 20 and will expedite the process of bringing to market cutting-edge research that reduces the world’s collective carbon footprint.

This issue of The Competitive Edge also considers start-ups of another sort: developing-world business enterprises facilitated by CSU graduate students. The students in our Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise program are helping the working poor in such countries as Peru, India, and Zambia create their own sustainable businesses — improving the lives of people and the condition of the planet.

And while students in the GSSE program are helping others sustain a living wage in the developing world, scientists with the Colorado State Forest Service are working to ensure our state forests also sustain a living — literally. The most recent findings of the CSU-based Colorado State Forest Service find our forest ecosystem in trouble. This month we report on the environmental danger zones as well as the recently passed legislation to fight the threats to Colorado's 22 million acres of forestland.

Whether we strive to advance global innovations, encourage living wages, or protect precious natural resources, Colorado State University is committed to solving the wide-reaching problems of a changing world.

Thank you for joining us.

Larry Edward Penley
Chancellor and President