Colorado State University a Major Contributor to Fast Company’s Ranking of Fort Collins as Â??fast Cityâ?�

Research and discovery at Colorado State University contributes significantly to Fort Collins’ recent ranking as one of Fast Company magazine’s 30 "Fast Cities 2007" worldwide.

The magazine named Fort Collins one of three cities worldwide as a research-and-development "hot spot" because the community generates 11.45 patents per year for every 10,000 people, nearly four times the U.S. city average. Other cities in the R&D category are Seoul, South Korea and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

Fort Collins is the only Colorado city listed in the Fast Company "Fast Cities 2007" list, which the magazine identifies as 30 urban centers shaping the future. The article names Colorado State as a contributor to the ranking.

"Colorado State University spins out world-class work in realms from bacterial diseases to sustainable energy, feeding a patent stream that’s growing by 21 percent a year," the Fast Company article said.

Colorado State, a land-grant institution founded in 1870, is one of the nation’s top research universities, solving some of the world’s most difficult problems from its laboratories and regularly spinning off new companies and partnerships with industry. The university’s annual research expenditures totaled $267.4 million in 2006-2007.

"Our faculty are highly productive and effective in addressing significant challenges that are universal to humanity – renewable energy, cures for cancer and infectious disease, sustainable crops, clean and available water, to name a few," said Tony Frank, provost and senior vice president at Colorado State. "As a 21st-century land-grant university with our roots in agriculture and engineering, this is yet more international recognition of our very important role to not only develop new technologies but get them to the people who need them."

One of the university’s strengths – and a major focus of multidisciplinary collaboration on campus known as an academic Supercluster – is in the area of infectious disease. In February, the university announced the creation of MicroRx, a new business arm to accompany the academic Supercluster known for its infectious disease discoveries, including diagnostic tests and vaccines for West Nile virus, leprosy, bubonic plague and tuberculosis. MicroRx is a first-of-its kind enterprise to speed the transition of life-saving research on infectious diseases from the academic world into the global marketplace.

Many research universities have technology transfer programs that guide scientists through the process of patenting and other complexities encountered in delivering discoveries to the global market. Colorado State’s Superclusters model is unique in its multidisciplinary structure, enabling groundbreaking research to move to market more quickly by mimicking business practices.

Colorado State University, located in Fort Collins at the base of the Rocky Mountains, is a top-tier research university offering more than 160 programs of study and 52 degree programs to 25,000 students in eight colleges. Money magazine ranked Fort Collins one of the "Best Places to Live in the United States" in 2006.

For more information about the Fast Cities ranking, go to http://www.fastcompany.com/cities/2007/.

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