Clarkson to oversee Beacon, continue research endeavors

POTSDAM — In an expanded research partnership announced Thursday, Clarkson University now is overseeing the nonprofit Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries.

The move also will lead to renovation of Clarkson’s long-vacant Old Main building on its downtown campus.

Sporting a new name and organizational structure, the Beacon Institute will be referred to as Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries-Clarkson University. The partnership, which began with a team of Clarkson researchers joining Beacon’s River and Estuary Observatory Network in 2008, is expected to advance the commercialization of emerging river-monitoring technology, new academic programs and public policies to protect waterways.

“Beacon Institute-Clarkson University and its REON system model the kind of collaboration among academic, industry and government that is at the core of Governor Cuomo’s regional economic development initiatives,” said Anthony G. Collins, Clarkson’s president and a co-chairman of the North Country Regional Economic Development Council. “This strategic alliance recognizes that universities must do more than create new knowledge, but also must lead in developing intellectual property, transferring technology to the marketplace and becoming a central part of the economic enterprise that values innovation, creativity and wealth for society.”

Since 2008, the Beacon Institute and Clarkson have been developing environmental monitoring networks that provide minute-by-minute updates of physical, chemical and biological data from points in the Hudson, Mohawk and St. Lawrence Rivers. While the alliance’s research focus is remaining the same, the Beacon Institute will now have a location in Potsdam, while Clarkson will expand its physical footprint to the Institute’s headquarters in the Hudson Valley.

The new partnership also may lead to graduate-level classes about river-monitoring technologies being offered in the Hudson Valley location, although undergraduate classes are not likely to be offered through the partnership.

The expanded partnership, which involved an internal modification to the Beacon Institute’s charter, will lead to two personnel changes: John Cronin, the Institute’s founding director and an expert in public policies about water quality, will join Clarkson’s faculty as a Beacon Institute Fellow and will teach classes and lead seminars for the college. Additionally, Clarkson University Business School Dean Timothy F. Sugrue will become the newly aligned institute’s CEO and likely will make the transition away from his role as dean over time.

“Since its founding, Beacon Institute has sought a university partner who will help advance its technological and scientific innovation mission,” Mr. Cronin wrote in a news release. “Our alliance with Clarkson University means great things for the state of New York and will solidly place on the world stage our advancements in research, policy and education.”

Earlier this year, legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, and state Sen. Joseph A. Griffo, R-Rome, allowed state Dormitory Authority funds that previously were allocated to the Beacon Institute to be allocated to Clarkson as well. These funds will be used for the renovation of Clarkson’s historic Old Main building on its downtown campus, creating an improved facility for REON design, fabrication, testing and commercialization of new technology.

Although the amount of Dormitory Authority funding that Clarkson will receive depends on forthcoming estimates for the cost of renovations, Mr. Collins said it will be a “significant amount.” The Old Main facility also will feature a green data center donated by IBM (a long-standing partner of the Beacon Institute) that will provide data analysis both for Beacon Institute projects and for other research endeavors at Clarkson.

“By using Old Main and renovating it, it allows us to do more with the same amount of money, because we’re using an existing facility and at the same time obviously bringing back into use the most iconic building at Clarkson,” Mr. Collins said. “It was a win-win situation.”