UC San Diego celebrates it’s 50 birthday on November 18, 2010. The university and our city’s booming biotech industry are directly linked.
UCSD’s journey to becoming one of the nation’s top research institutions began in 1960.
Since then, science has greatly evolved with it’s ability to clone, sequence a person’s DNA, harvest stem cells, and create renewable energy.
Now, nearly 35 percent of California jobs are in the life-science industries. Many of those jobs are in San Diego’s 500 biotech companies.
Stephen Mayfield, PhD., is a professor of biology at UCSD. He said many students come to UCSD for it’s premier science programs and stay for the jobs in our local biotech Industry.
“Our Biology department was ranked number one in the country. San Diego is now number one for life technology and I think that is directly tied to UC-San Diego. So, I’d say what we’ve achieved in the last 50 years is pretty remarkable. ”
As for the next 50 years, scientists must tackle and succeed at discovering renewable resources, said Mayfield.
“It’s sustainability. That’s the single word that’s going to drive the next 50 years.”
The drive is there from the new students, said Mayfield. One of his most popular courses teaches scientist how to become biotech entrepreneurs.
