Updates from the President

Arizona State University marked a major milestone this month with the official opening of the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in Arizona. After 15 years of collaboration, this achievement meaningfully advances the evolution of the Mayo Clinic ASU Alliance for Health Care through its offering of our certificate program in the Science of Health Care Delivery, dual degree programs and joint faculty appointments, as well as opportunities for the ongoing transformation of broad-scale medical education, research and patient outcomes. The Mayo Clinic Medical School received 3,000 applications for its inaugural cohort, and 50 students were selected to attend the Scottsdale campus. 

With the helpful vision and cooperation of individuals who recognize the growing need for 21st century innovation in physician preparation and health discovery, our alliance is now one pivotal step closer to transforming the future of health care, and ASU is proud and appreciative of this great opportunity.

All great U.S. universities are built around philanthropy, and ASU is no exception. It has been six months since the launch of Campaign ASU 2020, the first comprehensive development effort in ASU history, and the ASU Foundation has completed a record year of fundraising. For FY17, donors in Arizona and world-wide contributed approximately $220 million to support our institutional commitment to increased excellence, broader access and meaningful impact. That total exceeds the FY16 record and will enable us to provide more scholarship and academic programs, better facilities and technology and additional, unique learning opportunities for our students and the communities we serve. 

The enthusiasm and participation behind Campaign ASU 2020 signify the steadfast and far-reaching belief in ASU's great potential, our institutional priorities and the innovative ways we are demonstrating a new model for 21st century education. There are a variety of ways to engage with ASU to help invent a better future, and I look forward to seeing where the next six months will take us.

ASU is no stranger to advocating for education and innovation in our nation's capital. Last week found Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Foundation Professor and director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, taking her message to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology . In her July 18 testimony on the importance of planetary flagship missions, Prof. Elkins-Tanton outlined the significance of NASA's first ASU-led mission to the metal asteroid Psyche and the potential positive insights and outcomes that the 2022 launch could yield.

Noting the critical role of exploration in the advancement of civilization, she also relayed the vital need to nurture new and skilled explorers for the future and introduced ASU's newest effort dedicated to that purpose. 

The Interplanetary Initiative is our pan-university approach to attract, inspire and prepare creative critical thinkers who will explore the new frontiers and formulate new solutions to our most complex challenges. I am proud to act as co-chair of this forward-thinking endeavor, and your input is welcome.

Building on these exceptional summer achievements is the recent announcement that ASU earned more than $4 million in grants as part of the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative. ASU photovoltaic projects received six of the 28 grants and ranking us first among the 2017 recipients in the PV Research category. The awards are intended to aid the advancement of solar electric technologies in terms of performance, reliability, manufacturability and cost-competitiveness.

This is the second consecutive year ASU has dominated the SunShot Awards, having earned six of 19 grants in 2016, awards totaling $3.75 million. Based on this grant round, our Ira A.Fulton Schools of Engineering now rank ahead of the University of Central Florida, Stanford and Colorado State, and there are no plans to slow down. ASU is committed to being a national leader in photovoltaics and demonstrated continued excellence in renewable energy technologies.