Alaska Pumps $100 Million Into Science

ANCHORAGE ALASKA—Fishermen off the coast of Alaska’s Bering Sea last year caught a record two million metric tons of cod, flounder, and other bottomfish, nearly 50% more than the harvest of a decade ago. During the same period, the yield of Alaska king crab plunged by 90%, to a scant 42 million pounds. Marine scientists think there might be a causal connection between the two trends, but they have no data to back up their hunch. Hundreds of miles to the east, in the state’s vast interior, placex miners divert streams and rivers to extract gold from ore-bearing soil. But their methods pollute the water for users downstream. They are under pressure from state and federal environment authorities to find cleaner ways to mine the precious metal, but nobody is funding the necessary research. Each year, the federal government spends about $50 million in R&D funds in Alaska (see story page 6). But that amount isn’t enough to tackle the often unique scientific problems facing the country’s largest state. Recognizing that their problems are not always shared by the rest of the continental United States, Alaskans have decided to help themselves. Last spring, state officials created the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation. The foundation, with a projected $100 million endowment supplied by state taxes on oil and natural gas production, plans to address scientific and technical problems that have not received adequate attention from traditional funding sources. Modeled after one of those sources—the National Science Foundation, which funds predominantly academic research—the foundation is nonetheless expected to concentrate on what will make the most difference for the state’s people and industry. “We don’t have the talent in Alaska to get into superconductivity,” admits Dave Hickok, director of the Environmental Information Data Center at the University of Alaska. “But we can look at problems associated with human health,” he says, citing as one possible topic a better understanding of the state’s staggering levels of alcoholism. Four Important Areas The driving force behind the new foundation is Democratic Gov. Steve Cowper, whose career prior to his 1986 election included a stint as a diver and nondegreed marine researcher. Cowper first proposed the idea in 1980, and made it a prominent part of his unsuccessful campaign in 1982. Cowper’s efforts received a boost from a 1985 report by the University of Alaska Foundation on the state’s research needs in the physical, biological, and social sciences. The group pointed to a lack of knowledge in four important areas: the optimal use of the state’s natural resources; care and preservation of the state’s unique cultural and climatic heritage; the health of Alaskans; and environmental questions for which the state can serve as a natural laboratory. “A lot of the scientific questions that need to be answered in Alaska are not being addressed,” says Cowper about why he made the foundation one of his legislative priorities this year. “I finally concluded that we should assume responsibility for generating the knowledge and information that we ought to have about the only arctic region the United States has.” Cowper sees the bill’s passage as a sign that Alaska is ready to compete with the rest of the country, and the world, in solving today’s technological challenges. “This legislation has a dual purpose,” Cowper explains. “The first is to obtain the knowledge and information about Alaska that is necessary to make the technological breakthroughs that we need to compete abroad. Secondly, we want to build up a first-rate scientific community here.” Cowper and others recognize that; although basic research is an important tool in obtaining knowledge about the world, the majority of scientists and engineers in the state are focused on applied research. And that’s where the new foundation wants to make its biggest contribution. Henry Cole, a former University of Alaska geophysicist who serves as Cowper’s full-time science adviser, hopes that the foundatlon will help Alaska break out of its colonial status as a source of raw materials for an industrial world by stimulating growth among local industries. ‘The indications from the Lower 48 [states] are that this is the way we have to go to keep up with the 20th century,” says Cole. “Alaska has a tradition of pumping raw resources out of the ground. We desperately need to diversify, to add value to our products.” The 1985 report highlights such areas as applying new genetic engineering techniques to the state’s agricultural products, adopting better reforestation practices, and understanding the marine food chain to improve the productivity of the fishing industry. Richard Ogar agrees that new research must flow from existing needs. A policy analyst for ARCO Alaska, which operates half the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field on the state’s North Slope, Ogar hopes the foundation will take a practical bent in its awards. “We’re looking for something that will be applicable to the oil and gas industry,” says Ogar. “Much of the theoretical research [that is carried out by scientists] is not really what the industry is looking for.” Measure Of Success For Will Nelson, an engineer at the University of Alaska at Anchorage, the key to success is “technology transfer.” Says Nelson: “The person building an ice road doesn’t have the time to look through a bunch of journals in a library. And a lot of time that information isn’t in a form that’s usable to a person who’s trying to get the job done.” Supporters also expect the foundation to serve as a catalyst for local, private entrepreneurial efforts clustered in and around the state’s chief metropolitan areas, according to Lyle Perrigo, an official with the U.S. Arctic Research Commission here. “The measure of success will not be how well the University of Alaska does [in obtaining grants],” he says, “but how many small high-tech companies spring up. That’s what happened in Silicon Valley, and along Route 128 around Boston.” The Alaska foundation isn’t the first attempt to tackle the question of scientific development in the state. An Alaska Energy Center and an Alaska Council on Science and Technology both failed because they were seen as backdoor attempts to increase university funding rather than to stimulate the state’s economic development. They also required annual appropriations from the legislature, a step that led to protracted debates about their mission. That won’t happen with the new foundation. Although it was given $6 million to begin operations, the governor has the authority to deposit in its endowment up to $34 million annually in excess state revenues. Cowper is confident that oil revenues will be sufficient to permit the foundation to achieve its limit of $100 million within three years. The foundation’s nine-member advisory board has recently been chosen. Its members include two scientists from outside the state as well as representatives from the university and the public. Half of the foundation’s awards must be for amounts below $100,000, and state residents will be given preference. The foundation hopes to solicit proposals by the end of the year and award its first grants next spring. Need For Research The fishing industry can hardly wait. “From the time of the spawn to the time they show up in pots, no one knows what happens to the crab,” says Chris Bublitz, a biologist with the University of Alaska’s Fishery Industrial Technology Center in Kodiak, about the imperiled species. “There’s a real need for research in this area, and this is the first time I’ve seen the state make a move to address the needs of its biggest employer.” Bublitz’s enthusiasm is shared by many Alaskans. If all goes as planned, ichthyologists will be only a small portion of the scientists fishing for Alaska Science and Technology Foundation cash. John Quinley is a former reporter for the Anchorage Times He is now working for the National Parks Service in Anchorage.

Alaska Pumps $100 Million Into Science

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of