ASU Highlights

ASU boasts more than 60,000 students on its multiple campuses, making it the largest university in the nation. It is located in one of the largest metropolitan areas of the nation, (Phoenix, which forms the hub for the Valley of the Sun metroplex, is the 5th largest U.S. city.) ASU has an aggressive, well-planned campus development strategy for meeting this growth.

ASU benefits from $1 billion, 20-year Arizona State Sales Tax Initiative to fund education, research and technology in 2000. $60 million of this funding is pledged to the Biodesign Institute over the next five years.

ASU is adding 1 million sq. ft. of space in which world class research will be conducted. Examples include:

The Brickyard

ASU acquired at below market value a bankrupt office-retail-condo complex at the main intersection of Tempe.  ASU moved the computer science department into 90,000 sq ft of new space and expanded the department into the new hot area of bioinformatics.

Motorola Building

ASU acquired a unique $100-million flat panel display building that Motorola was closing for $29 million and acquired a Motorola research group that was being disbanded. Both were instrumental in ASU’s winning a $43.7 million Army research award for flexible display computers (renewable for another $50 million) against 99 other universities.

Biodesign 1

ASU built a $73-million, 172,000-sq ft research building to launch its first world class research institute that combines bioscience, nanotechnology, computer science and material science.

Biodesign 2, Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Buildings 1 and 2

Michael Crow led a major political campaign that resulted in the research infrastructure bill to compensate for the lack of research infrastructure funding that would otherwise have impeded Arizona’s efforts to grow its biotech sector. This appropriation by the state legislature paid the debt service on $185 million of research building construction, enabling another 420,000 sq. ft. of research space to be added to ASU.

ASU-Scottsdale Center

The Scottsdale City Council voted to give ASU a $41.5 million, 42-acre parcel of land in Scottsdale and added $45 million in infrastructure improvements for the University to build a research/innovation park on this site.

Phoenix Medical School

ASU is working with the University of Arizona to build the first medical school in metro Phoenix.

 

Major Accomplishments since 2002

The following are major accomplishments that have occurred since the appointment of Michael Crow as President of ASU in 2002.

Major Gifts and Awards

  • $50 million from William P. Carey for the business school
  • $50 million from Ira A .Fulton for the engineering school
  • $43.7 million from the U.S. Army for flexible panel display research renewable for another $50 million
  • $15 million from Julie Wrigley for the Institute for Sustainability
  • $10 million from the Virginia G. Piper Foundation for the creative writing center
  • $5.4 million from Orin Edson for a student entrepreneurial center
  • $5 million from Ira Fulton for the School of Education
  • $4.1 million from the Kellogg Foundations for non-profit leadership
  • $3 million from Ira A. Fulton for an environmental decision theater
  • $2.5 million from the Stardust Foundation for a center for affordable housing
  • $2.5 million from the Harrington Arthritis Research Center to bioengineering

Student Awards

  • National Merit Scholars (440 in last 3 years) - 3rd in U.S. among public schools; second only to Stanford among all schools in the West
  • USA Today All-USA Academic First and Second Teams (10 since 1992) - more than any other university in the last 12 years except Harvard and Yale
  • Truman Scholars (13 since 1991)
  • Goldwater Scholars (5 currently; 29 since 1993)
  • Fulbright Scholars (29): named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as a Top Producer
  • National Security Education Program (NSEP) Scholars- 24
  • Marshall Scholar - 1

Faculty Awards

  • Nobel Prize - 1 (the first in the history of the state)
  • Guggenheim Fellowship - 6
  • Fulbright Scholars - 9
  • Australia Selby Fellow - 1
  • Regents’ Professors - 11
  • The number of National Academy members has increased from 3 to 9, with 5 of these faculty affiliated with the Biodesign Institute.