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During his state-of-the-state message early this year, Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson announced plans for a major building initiative to benefit biology programs on the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin (UW). That initiative focuses on strengthening both basic and applied research programs in large part by constructing new research facilities for various departments specializing in the biological sciences, including several that focus on microbiology. Some of the activity surrounding this initiative illustrates that microbiology--among a host of other traditionally oriented disciplines within the biological sciences at UW--appears to be thriving, while perhaps also bucking the trend of emphasizing ``interdisciplinary'' over traditional approaches to research and teaching.

Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Franco Cerrina (L) describes his research to Governor Tommy Thompson (R) during a tour of the Biotechnology Center. © UW-Madison News & Public Affairs.

Late last year, Governor Thompson visited the biotechnology center at UW and vowed to develop a proposal for his January speech that would build on Wisconsin's strength and eventually position the state to become the ``Silicon Valley of biotechnology.'' With advice from UW administrators and faculty, that proposal quickly developed into the $317 million ``BioStar Initiative'' that not only capitalizes on his enthusiasm for biotechnology but also is premised on his confidence that this university-based program also will bring new investments and jobs into Wisconsin.

``These facilities will allow us to hire 100 new faculty members and strengthen our world-renowned team of scientists,'' Thompson says. ``New discoveries in science and technology will create high-skill, high-paying jobs in Wisconsin. The economic potential for biotechnology and high technology companies is incredible.''

In broad outline, the BioStar program will involve constructing four new, state-of-the-art research facilities near one another as part of a concentrated cluster of biology research facilities on the Madison campus. Although many details remain to be negotiated, current plans call for a public-private partnership to provide funds for construction costs, with the state providing a portion of the funds and the University raising the remainder from private and federal sources.

Chambliss

Construction of the $102 million, 330,000-square-foot Microbial Sciences Building is expected to begin by 2003 and to be completed within two years, according to Glenn Chambliss, chair of the Bacteriology Department. The new building will bring three of the major players in microbiology at UW under one roof, namely the Department of Bacteriology, the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and the Food Microbiology and Toxicology/Food Research Institute. The building will provide not only 21st-century research facilities but state-of-the-art instructional laboratories and learning centers. It will be the home of microbiology education for the Madison campus.

Plans for bringing these three departments closer together have been brewing for several years, well before the BioStar initiative took shape, according to Chambliss. By the mid-1990s, proposals were being floated to do something about the ``deplorable'' physical condition of the labs, while interdepartmental discussions in search of degree-granting and other possible collaborations also were being launched. At one point, consultants were hired to develop a facilities plan to meet the changing needs of microbiologists on campus.

Of those various planning efforts, the program-oriented plans proved fruitful sooner. Thus, the UW Departments of Bacteriology and of Medical Microbiology and Immunology agreed a few years ago to merge their Ph.D.-granting programs. That partial merger proved ``wildly successful,'' Chambliss says. The Ph.D. program now receives about 200 applications each year, and each class now contains 20 or more students, with a total of about 100 in the combined professional training program.

Meanwhile, microbiology is the ``fastest growing undergraduate major in terms of students with more than 550 undergraduates majors,'' Chambliss says. Here, the two departments still offer separate programs to undergraduates, but the overall figures point to growing popularity for both programs. ``Our program has grown more or less continuously, while the program in medical microbiology has grown explosively for the past five years,'' he points out. ``The students are going to medical school, graduate school, academic research labs, and a fairly large percentage [is going] to industry.''

Amid that growth in training efforts, plans to construct a new facility for the departments that oversee these programs now ``look like they're coming to fruition,'' Chambliss says. They call for demolishing a venerable but dilapidated facility in which the Department of Bacteriology has long been housed to make room for one that will contain it and two other departments that focus on microbiology, he says. ``There will be three departments in the new building, sharing some programs and encouraging other collaborations. We will be establishing new lines of communication and developing different perspectives. . . . But we're not merging into one department.''

Jeffrey L. Fox