The Science of Life in LA, $110M for UCLA Living Laboratory Research

We’ve blogged about the relationship between university research campuses and the communities in which they’re situated on many occasions, usually to talk about research technologies being commercialized in the form of start-ups, sometimes in university-sponsored business parks.  These new business ventures mean science talent stays local and new employment opportunities are created for locals and graduates as well.  In a town or small city the university may be the biggest (if not the only) game in town economically and culturally, even geographically if it sits on enough real estate.  But what is the role of the university --particularly a public university-- in a very large city with its own complex urban issues?  A city like, say, Los Angeles, California?

In the latest quarterly issue of UCLA Magazine (April 2011) there is an article titled “A New Blueprint for Public Life” that begins by announcing a huge gift to the university from philanthropists Meyer and Renee Luskin in the amount of $100 Million, the second –largest single gift ever.  The gift supports UCLA’s School of Public Affairs (recently re-named for the Luskins), allowing it to endow faculty positions and scholarships, update infrastructure, and build a conference center to engage scholars, political leaders, business members and the community in the active planning of LA’s future.  Fully half of the $100M will go to building the center and endowing it with funds to hold conferences.

The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs educates tomorrow’s policy makers, city planners and community organizers while learning from and engaging with the living laboratory that is the city and its diverse people.  And as a brain trust right in LA, with some of the brightest social minds from LA and dedicated to the city, SPA at UCLA is in a position to offer its “lab space” to the city at large by facilitating the kind of interaction, brainstorming and planning that is required to identify problems and respond to them with concrete change.

The School of Public Affairs is comprised of these 3 key departments:

• Social Welfare
• Urban Planning
• Public Policy

In the life sciences, technologies are developed that help people, but the research is usually carried out in relative isolation from those people.  In the social sciences and humanities, people in all their living complexity are the more immediate subject of research, the world is a living laboratory, and human civilization is a kind of grand experiment.  Can we live together in very close proximity, share resources, build the infrastructure of our communal lives, plan for tomorrow, and raise healthy children in the next century?  With the growing population of Los Angeles and the considerable disparity in income between its poorest and wealthiest members, the questions are more than academic.  LA will have some kind of future.  What will it look like?  How will it function?  And will it positively support all of its inhabitants?

Remember the song “Nobody Walks in LA”? If forward-thinking policy-makers can affect the kind of civic innovation the Luskins envision, Los Angeles in 20 years could be criss-crossed with sidewalks and bike paths, dotted with pocket parks and plazas for social interaction, accessible by clean public transit, and (just think) you might have to explain to your kids what “smog” was as you look out at the Los Angeles skyline.  UCLA will not only be a witness to this positive future, it will be a partner and a vital component of the kind of urban renewal that some truly imaginative and committed citizens are banking on right now.

Biotechnology Calendar Inc. believes in the importance of face-to-face social interaction for business as well as pleasure.  To that end we produce the highest-quality life science laboratory supply tradeshows in the industry.  We offer marketing, product seminar, and advertising opportunities with a human face: you will always reach a knowledgeable human being ready to talk to you about your business needs when you call us at our toll-free number (during regular business hours, of course).

One of our biggest events, held bi-annually on the UCLA campus, is the Los Angeles Biotechnology Vendor Showcase™ Exposition.  Plan to attend this year on October 6.