UNLV’s Harter joins university presidents in nation’s capital

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Sept. 23, 1999 | 11:54 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- UNLV President Carol Harter has joined about 60 university leaders in the nation's capital this week to lobby Congress for more high-tech research money.

On her wish list: start-up cash for UNLV's fledgling Cancer Institute, money for research on the effects of high pressure on matter and funds for two planned research parks -- one at Summerlin and one at the old Paradise Elementary School owned by UNLV. The new Boyd School of Law, temporarily located at the Paradise site, will move to its permanent home on the UNLV campus in about a year and a half.

"We're hoping that Congress will fund research to some extent better than they have been," Harter said Wednesday, shortly before ducking into a meeting with seven Democratic senators and several other university leaders.

The UNLV president said building the university up to a leader in high-tech research will help diversify Las Vegas' economy and attract high-tech businesses to the valley. Harter is rubbing shoulders here with presidents from research giants, among them Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University.

"I'm glad to be here with them. We're certainly newer and younger than they are in terms of research," Harter said.

Harter is quick to roll out a list of projects that likely would require federal seed money. UNLV already has organized its Cancer Institute, a group of eight scientists and engineers who are studying new drugs, better mammography technology and nutrition as it relates to cancer growth. A new building for the institute could cost $12 million, Harter said.

Another project involves using lasers and X-rays to study what new materials can be formed under high pressure. That research could lead to "unbreakable" glass, even stronger than bulletproof glass, harder diamonds, even "a light bulb that never burns out," Harter said.

UNLV is also planning a research park in Summerlin that already has drawn the interest of a biotechnology firm, as well as a Hollywood firm that specializes in high-tech elements of movie-making, Harter said. A donor has agreed to buy the 80-acre site for the university but the project needs development money.

Harter took special care to bend the ear of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., an influential voice in Senate as the Minority Whip.

"We're certainly concerned about high-skilled jobs," Reid spokesman Jack Pannell said. "Las Vegas is growing at such a rapid rate with people coming from all over the world, really. You want a diversified industry."