Collegio Online

Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: Front Page

The scientists at the Kansas Polymer Research Center now have a new building in which to do their groundbreaking research.
The Tyler Research Center, home now to the KPRC, was unveiled to the public on a breezy Friday afternoon, Sept. 21.
City and state VIPs were on hand to commemorate the event, including Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
"It's not just Kansas who's watching what's happening here - it's all around the world," Sebelius said, before telling a story about an acquaintance who ran into Japanese businessmen while on a trip to Japan. The businessmen inquired about the progress of the KPRC.
"Even in Tokyo they're celebrating this ribbon-cutting," Sebelius said.
The Kansas Polymer Research Center has worked with Cargill Inc. for over a decade to make products like foam and resin - traditionally made with petroleum - out of vegetable and soybean oils. Their efforts were rewarded this summer with the 2007 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, making them the only research institution in the state of Kansas to win the prize.
PSU President Tom Bryant, major donor Bob Tyler, University Research and Development Chair Clay Blair and Kansas Board of Regents Vice Chairwoman Donna Shanks also spoke at the dedication, all of them focusing on the same theme: cooperation.
Many said that without donations from the Tyler family, support from the state legislature or the dedication of Bryant, the Tyler Research Center would not be possible.
Steve Robb, executive director of the Business and Technology Institute, says Bryant was "tireless" in trying to secure funding for the building.
"He went to the line on a number of occasions," Robb said. "Yes, Mr. Tyler wrote the check, but Dr. Bryant made it all happen."
Robb, who has been involved with the KPRC since its inception, says seeing the building is a "tremendous feeling," noting that it would also help in courting company partnerships.
"If you talk to (company representatives) in Shirk Hall, you're showing them old dorm rooms," Robb said. "Now this is world-class stuff."
Robb says the building was much needed by the KPRC staff, a group that has worked in less-than-ideal conditions for the past 13 years. In 1996, the group received two labs and two offices in Shirk Hall, but it wasn't enough for their growing operation.
"Now that we have a state of the art facility, we have much more space for expansion," said Ivan Javni, research manager for the KPRC. "And this is a beautiful building. All of us are thankful to Mr. Tyler and his family for their donation."
Javni said he and his team of researchers, including other professors and graduate students, will no longer have to bump elbows while doing research.
The two-story building has over a dozen labs, several meeting rooms and offices for staff.
"In the new labs, we have just everything," Javni said. "It makes us very confident."

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