The benefits to companies and to California are tremendous. Using research originally done by faculty members at UC Berkeley, for example, a cooperative research project with an industrial consortium developed a high-speed, highcapacity disk technology that can store eight times the information capacity of the Library of Congress. Many of the firms are located in California and were involved in the original project. The most important benefit is that the UC program involves graduate students in every aspect of the research it sponsors. Industry thus gets the benefit of some of the world's brightest young minds.
Graduate students gain the opportunity to learn firsthand about industry's needs.
As a result, they have an incentive to stay in California and continue contributing their talents to our economy. As knowledge increasingly drives our economy, states and nations that expect to prosper will have to pioneer new partnerships to convert basic knowledge into useful products. The outlines of California's strategy for getting there first are beginning to take shape. Edward E. Penhoet is president and chief executive officer of Chiron Corp. Richard C. Atkinson is president of the University of California.