Part of Yeats' "fire" that defines higher education excellence is the desire to explore, to create, to problem solve, and never to stop expanding the boundaries of knowledge.

The University of Cincinnati is, first of all, a community of learning and scholarship. It is a learning community in that the people who compose this community may be described, each and every one, primarily as learners - engaged in teaching, scholarship, and research. It is also a learning community in the sense that the community itself is capable of acquiring and responding to new information.

As the Information Economy evolves from an abstract concept toward an omnipresent reality, we find that the outcomes and quality of scholarship and research have very concrete effects on the regional and national economies. This economic value drives a demand for technological transfer and application, and provides for the cultural enrichment of our community.

Of 3,706 institutions of higher education in the United States, only 88 are designated as Research I institutions by the Carnegie Commission. The University of Cincinnati is one.

During the past year, the University of Cincinnati set a new record for external funding: $109 million. This record was largely driven by strong growth in sponsored research. Our faculty are working harder: research grant applications were up 19 percent over the previous year, although the number of faculty remained stable.

Because many of our faculty received research funding through other institutions (such as Shriners Burns Institute or Childrenís Hospital Medical Center), the complete tally for grants and contracts is more than $149 million. This places us among the top 50 research institutions in the country. The university's Medical Center (when funding for the Children's Hospital research base is included) ranks among the top 30 in the nation for external research funding.

More than 825 grants and contracts were awarded to UC faculty during the past year. Here are a few highlights:

• David E. Milhorn, professor and Chairman of the Molecular and Cellular Physiology Division at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, was the recipient of the MERIT Award of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The award recognizes outstanding research in the area of oxygen regulation and gene mechanisms.
  University of Cincinnati medical researcher Michael Lehman was among a team of physicians who published in Nature a landmark paper based on their research on the human brain. The team's discovery could have a major impact on efforts to repair deteriorating or damaged brain structures. Lehman is on the faculty of UC's College of Medicine.

• The University of Cincinnati is helping the Ohio Department of Transportation build an experimental bridge to demonstrate the improved strength and durability of a high-performance concrete mix developed at UC's College of Engineering. Tests have demonstrated that the UC-designed concrete mix is significantly stronger than conventional concrete. It could not, in fact, be broken under the most strenuous tests.

• University of Cincinnati archaeologists working at Troy have uncovered a bust of the Roman Emperor Augustus. The find was announced on the 2,060th anniversary of Augustus' birth. The statue was discovered during ongoing excavations by UC's McMicken College of Arts & Sciences at the site of the Trojan War.

• University of Cincinnati researchers have developed a system for quickly synthesizing and screening antibiotics. The system, developed by chemists in UC's McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, uses a patented intermediate compound for rapid synthesis of new antibiotics coupled with a high-speed method for screening activity.

• University of Cincinnati management Professor Charles H. Matthews is three-for-three for the research he has presented at the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Matthews, director of UC's Small Business Institute, has won a top prize in each of the past three years for excellence in small business research. The Institute is based in UC's College of Business Administration.

• University of Cincinnati aerospace researchers have developed a new infrared inspection system to spot cracks as small as 200 microns in aircraft bodies. This non-destructive evaluation allows engineers to test more often without damaging the aircraft. The research was conducted in UC's College of Engineering.
  
  
• A team of University of Cincinnati researchers spanning three colleges reported on their progress in solving the nationís most troubling pollution problems at a national conference. The conference marks the 10th anniversary of the Superfund Basic Research Program. UC was one of the first universities to participate in the program and has received more than $10 million in research support over the past eight years.

• A large federal grant will allow University of Cincinnati researchers to build a very small chemistry laboratory - a laboratory small enough to fit on an electronic microchip. The research team in UC's College of Engineering will develop a hand-held device for detecting proteins in medical, environmental, or industrial settings. Its success could reduce sampling costs - currently as much as $10,000 - to less than $50.

• It is estimated that retail pharmacists make mistakes in three to five percent of the prescriptions they fill. A University of Cincinnati psychologist, Anthony Grasha, has found that errors happen most often when pharmacists are distracted, overworked, or under stress. His solution: train pharmacists, like fighter pilots, under simulated conditions to show them when, and how, they fail. Grasha is on the faculty of UC's McMicken College of Arts & Sciences.

• In 1996, the University of Cincinnati marked a quarter-century of public opinion polling through the university's Institute for Policy Research. The best known of the Institute's polls is the Ohio Poll, widely quoted by national media - particularly during election season.

• The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering a $15.7 million grant for research into hazardous wastes and oil spill remediation. The grant is the largest ever received by a college outside the University's Medical Center.

• Speaking of the Medical Center, our researchers have developed an important tool for cardiovascular research, in the form of transgenic mice. The University of Cincinnati supplies 80 percent of the laboratory mice used throughout the world for research in heart disease. In fact, the university has produced 15 percent of all transgenic mice in existence.