Finally, we want to stress again the importance of having undergraduate programs that are flexible enough for students to take courses in the biosciences. If we fail in this regard, then our freshman and sophomores will transfer out of the College making it less likely for the biology world to see their engineering talents. Acknowledgements The Committee would like to thank Lynn Jelinski and Peter Bruns for their comments. When a field as vast and important as biological sciences undergoes a major paradigm shift, it creates both opportunities and risks for public institutions like Cornell. Twenty years ago most biological research took place in public institutions.
Biology is now big business.
Whereas pharmaceutical products, engineering processes and agricultural improvements were previously derived through arduous empirical methods, we are now entering an era where medical, engineering and agricultural advances will be specifically designed on the basis of information from genomic sciences. Whole new industries, and ones that are more environmentally friendly, are likely to be created by the genomics revolution. Not only have the potential benefits from biological research changed, but also how biological research will be conducted in the future. It will no longer be adequate for individual scientists to work in isolation. Likewise, the way we prepare students to fill positions in these new biological industries must change.