NSU Horizons Fall 2011

13 horizons n hanbury We have wonderful NCAA athletic programs here. We have 17 sports, 370 student-athletes, and the cumulative grade point average for those athletes is better than 3.0. Our women’s golf team just won its third consecutive national championship. Division II of the NCAA emphasizes the student-athlete, and at NSU, education comes above athletics. We prepare student-athletes to be leaders for the rest of their lives. n Horizons One of the initiatives that is important to you and the board of trustees is growing the undergraduate program. Why is that on the top of your to-do list? n hanbury We want to be recognized not only for our great graduate programs, but also our undergraduate programs. We are making strides to attract the best and the brightest undergraduates because of our excellent graduate and professional programs. We want them to come to this school to enjoy great campus life, our multitude of programs, classrooms, laboratories, buildings, and dormitories that are state of the art. There’s no other school that I’m aware of that has more than 90 graduate and professional programs where undergraduates can exercise passionate curiosity and preview graduate or professional programs, or, in their fourth year, through our Dual Admission Program, go directly into a graduate or professional program. NSU research centers n Horizons By summer 2012, the new Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Science Research Facility will to be completed at NSU’s Oceano- graphic Center and its National Coral Reef Institute on the ocean side of Port Everglades (See story on page 14). How will this new research center raise the university’s profile? n hanbury For 30 years, we’ve been at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, where millions of people go in and out on the largest cruise ships in the world. For 30 years, all those ships have passed by little, two-story buildings whose participants conduct significant marine biological and coral reef research and preservation with global impact. After being awarded a competitive grant of $15 million from the federal govern- ment, we are in the midst of constructing the $40-million Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Science Research Facility. When it opens in 2012, this will be a signature structure that will be instantly recognizable as Nova Southeastern University and whose scientists and students will be discovering ways to improve the world’s oceans and ecosystems from extinction. n Horizons Are there other plans in the works? n hanbury We also are planning to build the Center for Collaborative Research (CCR) on our main campus. In that structure, there will be wet labs for our researchers and our scientists to study and to collaborate among different disciplines with other researchers for technology transfer and the development of patents. We also will have the only private incubators in Broward County to attract biotech and high-tech businesses to work with our faculty members and students to develop new processes. In addition, the CCR will house offices for researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey as well as laboratories for software engineering and computer development and high-tech demonstrations. Nova Southeastern University is not only an educational institution, but a research institution that is an economic engine. We are the knowledge-based industry for the future. The plans for the CCR will go to the trustees this fall. If it is approved, we will see both the Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Science Research Facility and the Center for Collaborative Research come to development almost within the same time. That would mean that NSU could have, within the next 24 months, more than $120 million worth of research facilities that we never had before. I expect that by 2020, we will expand from our present $75 million of exter- nally funded research to more than $300 million because of the availability of those facilities to our researchers and the community. If we are successful in attracting first-time-in-college students to come here then, in three to four years, we will have to build more dormitory space. More undergraduates would require more classroom space, and more parking facilities. I also would like to see the Academical Village begun, or even completed, by 2020. It will be a mixed-use project integrated into the main campus, comprising space for research, offices, residents, retail, a hotel conference center, a hospital, and medical offices. It’s a worthy project for this university. n Horizons On a personal note, when you are not NSU President George L. Hanbury II, what do you do in your spare time? n hanbury I have a 20-foot fishing boat that I like to try to go out on during the weekend. I do more fishing than I do catching. I also love to read. It’s impor- tant to try to keep up on the literature of my discipline and to try to expand my mind. I like to read historical novels. n Horizons What would you like George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., to be remembered for as NSU’s sixth president? n hanbury One, that I devoted my entire life to education and encouraged others to pursue education. The other thing that I’d like to be recognized for is that vision 2020 came into fruition. n To watch the entire interview with President Hanbury, visit www.nova.edu/president. “We are making strides to attract the best and the brightest undergraduates…”