It was a night of celebrating and acknowledging research, scholars, and creativity at the University of Iowa.
Daniel Reed, the UI vice president for Research & Economic Development, delivered the annual state of research address on Monday. This year’s speech was titled “Mapping Terra Incognita.”
Reed’s main points emphasized the importance of a great research university, societal importance of scholarship and research, significance of continuing to spread the message of research, and how research affects society.
“There are amazing things happening on this campus, and I can stand here all night, literally, to talk about them,” he said. “If you go across this campus, and you walk room to room, there are amazing people doing extraordinary things.”
According to the UI Office of Research and Economic Development, in fiscal 2015, the total number of awards granted increased 3 percent.
Among the research achievements highlighted by Reed was the discovery of a biomarker that could potentially cure preeclampsia, a form of hypertension during pregnancy.
The research is significant, he said, because it could help predict whether a pregnant woman will develop preeclampsia as early as six weeks into the pregnancy. The study was published in an American Heart Association journal in July.
He said a new campaign would soon launch to help promote research, scholarly, and creative discoveries at the UI.
“We must do a better job at telling our stories,” he said. “Why we matter.”
Throughout the speech, Reed emphasized the importance of telling stories of discoveries in a way that resonates and connects with people.
He said researchers and scholars have to talk about how their discoveries will affect and transform the lives of the people.
However, with success comes challenges, too, Reed said.
He said one of the biggest challenges faced is the decrease in funding from the federal government budget.
“Ways to think about the U.S government budget is a police force, some social services, and some hobbies,” he said. “Everything that we think of as discretionary investment, including research, goes into the hobbies category, and it is a very small fraction.”
Sue Curry, the dean of the UI College of Public Health, said obtaining funding for research has always been difficult.
“It’s always been challenging; funding goes up, and it goes down, but it never completely goes away,” she said.
Curry said she was inspired by the successes of research done at the university after the talk.
Rebekah Kowal, a UI associate professor of dance, said research is an essential educational and humanistic mission of the institution on many different levels.