Research Corporation

Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) is an organization in the United States devoted to the advancement of science, funding research projects in the physical sciences. Since 1912, Research Corporation for Science Advancement has identified trends in science and education, financing many scientific research projects.

The Research Corporation was founded in 1912 by Frederick Gardner Cottrell, scientist, inventor, environmentalist and philanthropist, [1] with initial funding derived from the profits from his patents on the electrostatic precipitator. Research Corporation was the second foundation established in the United States (Andrew Carnegie established the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1906) and America's first foundation devoted solely to the advancement of science. For over 100 years, RCSA has catalyzed transformative research by funding top early-career teacher-scholars at America's colleges and universities.

RCSA seeks to identify and support ideas that could revolutionize and advance entire fields of study. At the same time, RCSA works to improve U.S. science education by advocating that faculty members enhance their teaching and contribution to society by remaining active in research and by involving undergraduates in their work. For many years the foundation has maintained that involving undergraduates in research develops critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, and intellectual independence, and promotes an innovation-oriented culture.

RCSA supports direct grants to academic scientists; conferences that leverage important scientific work that is already under way; advocacy with an emphasis on the research of early-career faculty; promulgating innovative ideas for scientific transformation; the integration of research and science teaching; interdisciplinary research; and building academic cultures that look toward tomorrow's scientific needs.

During the 1920s and 1930s, many scientists took out patents of their developments and assigned them to the Research Corporation in order to guarantee that any profits made from their work would be used for further scientific research (one notable example is Ernest O. Lawrence, who assigned his cyclotron patent to the company). The Research Corporation played a major role in the minds of many scientists of the period in formulating ideal policies about the role of intellectual property in science. It was one of the first foundations in the United States. In 1987, their invention-handing facilities became Research Corporation Technologies, a wholly independent company which handles technology transfer. It was also a major supporter of the research that led to the presentation of Interlingua in 1951.

Grants Programs: Cottrell Scholar Awards

The Cottrell Scholar Awards program (CSA) reinforces the growing awareness that teaching and research are complementary rather than wholly or partially exclusive. RCSA believes this convergence is essential for increasing the number of students who are attracted and retained in science.

Cottrell Scholar Awards are intended to:

  • Create a culture shift in Ph.D.-granting institutions toward valuing the university scholar;
  • Increase the attraction and retention of undergraduates in science;
  • Increase the number of undergraduates from Ph.D.-granting institutions pursuing graduate degrees.

The program provides $100,000 over three years to early-career faculty in chemistry, physics, astronomy, biochemistry and biophysics at major research universities. Cottrell Scholars are chosen not only for their high-quality research, but also for their dedication to the task of teaching undergraduates. There are currently more than 240 Scholars nationwide.

Each award recipient is required to attend at least two annual conferences during the three-year term of the award. These conferences are focused on providing opportunities to share teaching knowledge as well as mentoring from previous award recipients and nationally recognized experts on such topics as navigating career paths, and balancing research and education in the research university environment. Numerous Cottrell Scholars have found the knowledge and recognition the program provides to be major motivating factors in their efforts to push through reforms in undergraduate science curricula at their universities.

In 2011 RCSA did not make any regular Cottrell Scholar Awards; instead, foundation personnel and various Cottrell Scholars focused on revamping and reorienting the program to increase its effectiveness in the coming decade. At the 2011 conference, a new synergistic organization, the Cottrell Scholar Collaborative, was launched. The Collaborative's central goal is to act collectively to change the way undergraduate science education is taught at major American universities.

Grants Programs: Cottrell College Science Awards

The Cottrell College Science Awards (CCSA) program, RCSA's oldest initiative, was created in the early 1970s to promote basic research as a vital component of undergraduate education at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). CCSA has supported the research work of more than 1,300 PUI faculty in more than 400 institutions, and has generated research opportunities for thousands of undergraduates at both public and private institutions. One of RCSA's important goals is to motivate students to pursue careers in research and to become the advanced scientific workforce America will need to remain prosperous and safe in the challenging decades to come.

The awards are intended to: • Strengthen teacher-scholars while supporting high-quality research at primarily undergraduate institutions; • Help early-career PUI faculty become competitive for federal funding; • Encourage faculty to conduct meaningful collaborative work with undergraduate researchers, and; • Enhance the research culture of science departments at public and private institutions in the U.S.

The CCSA Single-Investigator Award provides research support for early-career faculty with interests in the fields of chemistry, physics and astronomy and in closely related fields that overlap significantly with these three disciplines. RCSA also has a new initiative under the CCSA banner, the Multi-Investigator Awards, to encourage early-career faculty to establish in-house, interdisciplinary research collaborations. This was done to encourage PUI-based researchers to address the increasingly complex problems inherent in modern scientific inquiry.

Grants Programs: Arizona Partners in Science Awards

Arizona Partners in Science, an RCSA program in conjunction with the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, provides summer research opportunities for high-school science teachers under the supervision of faculty members at Arizona universities.

The objective of this program is to provide Arizona high-school science teachers the opportunity to work on summer research projects in collaboration with individual science faculty at universities within the state. The main goals are to help improve grade 9-12 science education and increase the number of students who choose to pursue science careers.

Strategic Partnerships

Research Corporation for Science Advancement works with corporations, fellow foundations, and government offices and agencies, as well as educational institutions, across the country.

In order to increase the breadth of its influence, in 2010 Research Corporation established a Strategic Partnerships program charged with increasing its endowment and establishing collaborations with corporations, fellow foundations, government offices and agencies.

Presidents

YearsNamePrevious rolesEducationNotesRef
1912-1915Board of directors
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1915-1922Elon Huntington HookerFounder of Hooker Electrochemical CompanyUniversity of Rochester bachelor's, Cornell University PhDChemist, hydrodynamic engineer
1922-1927Arthur A. HamerschlagEngineer for the US Government in Cuba and Mexico (1888-1892), President of Carnegie Institute of Technology (1903-1921)
1927-1945Howard Andrews PoillonMucker in Alaskan gold mines (1900-1910), Manager of Vanadium Mines (1910-?), Director of RCSA (1920-1927)Spent one year at Columbia University School of MinesFormed an engineering consulting firm for mining
1946-1957Joseph Warren BarkerUS Army Officer (?-1925), Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, Dean of Engineering Faculty at Columbia University (?-?), Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy (World War II)MIT graduate (1916)Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award recipient
1957-1967J. William HinkleyCentral Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. (1927-1943), Staff at MIT's Radiation Laboratory (1943-1944), Manager of RCSA's Research Construction Company (1945-1946), Director of RCSA's Patent Management Division (1946-1957)Died during his tenureship
1968-1982James Stacy ColesChemistry Professor at City College of New York and Middlebury College (?-?), Research Supervisor at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (World War II), Acting Dean and Chemistry Professor at Brown University (?-?), President of Bowdoin College (?-1967)Degrees from Mansfield State Teachers College and Columbia UniversityRetired in 1982 but remained Chairman of the RCSA's executive committee until 1984
1982-2002John P. SchaeferAssistant Professor of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley (?-1960); Chemistry Department Head and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (?-1971), and President of University of Arizona (1971-1982)Helped found the Center for Creative PhotographyPolytechnic Institute bachelor's in chemistry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign PhD in chemistry, California Institute of Technology postdoc
2002Michael P. DoyleTaught at University of Arizona, Nankai University, Hope College, and Trinity University; Chemistry and Biochemistry Department Chair at University of Maryland (2003-?); Medicinal Chemistry Department Chair at University of Texas at San Antonio (?-present)Attended University of St. Thomas and Iowa State University; University of Illinois, Chicago postdoc
2002-2005John P. Schaefer
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Resumed presidency
2005-2013James M. GentileDean for the Natural Sciences and Endowed Chair in Biology at Hope CollegeSaint Mary's University of Minnesota bachelor's and Illinois State University Master's and PhD, Yale School of Medicine postdocReceived the Alexander Hollaender Research Excellence Award from the EMGS and the Cancer Research Medallion from the National Cancer Institute of Japan; AAAS Fellow
2014-2017Robert N. SheltonPresident of Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (?-?), President of University of Arizona (2006-2011), Executive Director of the Arizona Sports Foundation (2011-2014)Novel materials physicist[2]
2017Daniel GaschInterim president
2017-presentDaniel I. LinzerAssistant Professor (1984-?), Associate Dean (1998-2002), Dean (2002-2007), Provost (2007-2017), and Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology (?-present) at Northwestern UniversityYale University bachelor's in molecular biophysics and biochemistry (1976), Princeton University PhD in biochemical science (1980), NIH postdoc at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Nobel Laureates

Research Corporation for Science Advancement has funded the early work of at least 40 scientists who have received Nobel Prizes.

YearNameCategoryRCSA grant(s)Research topicRef
1934Harold C. UreyChemistry1938Isotopes
1939Ernest O. LawrencePhysics1931 (renewed 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938), 1939 (renewed 1940, 1941, 1942)Cyclotron (1931), nuclear physics (1939)
1944Isidor Isaac Rabi1931, 1937 (renewed 1938, 1939, 1940)Molecular beam research (1931), magnetic moment of the atom (1937)
1946Percy W. Bridgman1954Properties of matter under pressure with a particular reference to the properties of alloys
1950Edward C. KendallPhysiology or Medicine1942 (1943, 1944)Cortical hormones
1952Felix BlochPhysics1939, 1946 (renewed 1947, 1948)Low voltage generator (1939), nuclear induction and its application to polarized neutrons (1946)
Edward M. Purcell1946, 1948Resonance absorption by nuclear magnetic moments
1958George BeadlePhysiology or Medicine1944Induction and detection of biochemical mutations in Neurospora crassa
Edward L. Tatum1946, 1947, 1971, 1974Use of isotopes in the study of biosynthesis of amino acids (1946, 1947), characterization of enzymes of morphological mutants of Neurospora (1971, 1974)
1959Severo Ochoa1941, 1944, 1951Intermediary carbohydrate metabolism (1941), respiratory enzymes and the mechanism of the biological oxidation of pyruvic acid (1944), enzyme systems involved in biological oxidations and syntheses (1971)
1961Robert HofstadterPhysics1950Nuclear electric charge distribution by experiments on the elastic scattering of electrons from nuclei
1964Feodor LynenPhysiology or Medicine1954Biosynthesis of the fatty acids and isoprene derivatives
1965Robert B. WoodwardChemistry1949 (renewed 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953), 1957Synthesis of cortisone (1949), structure and synthesis of chlorophyll (1957)
1967Manfred Eigen1954Velocity and mechanism of high speed ionic reactions
1968Robert W. HolleyPhysiology or Medicine1958Chemistry of intermediates in protein synthesis
1969Max Delbrück1958Production, characterization and mapping of the phage T2L
1973Ernst Otto FischerChemistry1961Extension of metal microanalysis
1976William N. Lipscomb Jr.1959Determination of the molecular structure of an enzyme, a proteinase from Tetrahymena pyriformis W, by x-ray diffraction methods
1979Herbert C. Brown1948, 1949Effects of structure on the chemistry of addition compounds
George WaldPhysiology or Medicine1942 (renewed 1943), 1949Physiological action of thiamin in neuromuscular systems (1942), cozymase-destroying systems in the tissues of freshwater fishes or the conversion of β-Carotene to vitamin A in vitro (1949)
Georg WittigChemistry1955Organic anion chemistry
1986Dudley Herschbach1998Mechanical means to decelerate gaseous molecules
1987Donald J. Cram1951Macro-ring compounds containing aromatic nuclei as part of the ring systems
1989Thomas R. Cech1977, 1978Photochemical crosslinking of DNA with psoralens
1990Elias J. Corey1958, 1959Synthesis of electronically unstable organic structures protected by large substituents
1992Rudolph A. Marcus1954, 1956Behavior of the dicarboxylate ions
Edwin G. KrebsPhysiology or Medicine1958, 1959Immunochemical studies on glycolytic enzymes
1993Joseph H. Taylor Jr.Physics1970Temporal variation of pulsars
1995Frederick Reines1959 (unrestricted), 1961Neurons and gamma-rays of extraterrestrial origin
1996Robert C. Richardson1972, 1973Possible superfluid properties of liquid 3He
Robert F. Curl Jr.Chemistry1958Microwave spectra of radicals and molecules
Richard E. Smalley1976, 1977Supersonic molecular beam laser spectroscopy of photoactive molecules
1999Ahmed H. Zewail1976Energy transport in high-dimensional solids
2000Alan G. MacDiarmid1956, 1957, 1959Silico-ethyl (SiH3SiH2) compounds
2001Carl E. WiemanPhysics1981Precision test of the Weinberg-Salam theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions.

References

Archival collections

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