Research: Alive and Well in N.C.

In the 1950s, North Carolina seemed to be exporting even more home-grown university talent than fine tobacco. Traditionally agrarian, the state had little to offer college graduates, who kept going north for better paying jobs. In 1959 a group of public-spirited North Carolinians came up with a solution: a "research park." Modeled after industrial parks--scientific companies were sought as tenants, rather than manufacturers--research centers flourished in the early '60s on the edges of the space race. But by 1965 many were faltering or had already failed, victims of an economic recession and a switch in priorities in Washington from hardware to social problems.

Spark-Plug Center. North Carolina's Research Triangle Park has not only survived but has become the largest such complex in the country. It is set in the geographic triangle formed by Duke University (seven miles away), the University of North Carolina (twelve miles) and North Carolina State (15 miles). Twenty-five Government, corporate and nonprofit research organizations are located in the park's 5,400 acres of rolling, pine-covered hills. Over 60 buildings, some of them dramatic, futuristic structures like the Burroughs Wellcome headquarters, are widely separated in the woods--with plenty of room to stretch and sprawl. Now there are more Ph.D.s in relation to the population--3,000 engineers and scientists with doctorates--than in any other part of the nation. "This is a sparkplug center, firing the South's vision of itself," says John Tyler Caldwell, former chancellor of North Carolina State, who is now representing a three-university project at the park. "It means North Carolinians will come home and stay home."

The Triangle's main lure is its close ties with the three nearby universities--a kind of entente cordiale between business and academia. Shucking the traditional snobbery of university scientists toward their colleagues in industry, professors gladly advise Triangle researchers, while the private scholars in turn teach courses at the universities. "Teaching a course forces me to go through the [scientific] literature and stay up to date," says A.G. Swan, who instructs grad students at N.C. State in addition to his duties as president of the research center for Becton, Dickinson & Co. People who work in the enclave like the quiet, hassle-free atmosphere. Says a chemist: "This is the southern part of heaven."

At the moment, the park is dominated by biomedical, computer and chemical research. The Environmental Protection Agency's air-pollution study center, which investigates such things as the reaction of blood cells to gases, is in the park. The Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology is developing new methods for testing the safety of drugs and chemicals. Monsanto is testing synthetic fibers and nonwoven fabrics, while IBM--the biggest employer, with 3,500 workers--is checking out new computer systems and programs.

The Research Triangle is hoping to attract other kinds of tenants as well. One, the newly formed National Humanities Center, has already broken ground at the park. Funded by private foundations and corporations, the center aims to encourage interdisciplinary research in such fields as history, religion, philosophy, sociology and the arts. It will finance nine months of carefree study for 25 to 50 scholars at a time. Eventually the center would like to enhance the influence of the humanities in the same way that Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study boosted the reputation of physics and mathematics by nurturing such geniuses as Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and Niels Bohr. Says Director Charles Frankel, a philosopher: "We want to stand up and show the power of the humanities." For Executive Officer William Bennett, Research Triangle Park is just the place to accomplish that goal. Says he: "The people here have sold not only an environment but a state of mind."

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