Funding academic research Foundation

Acknowledgements. This work was supported in part by the academic research fund (981-1105-021-2) of the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation and also by the Center of Advanced Bioseparation Technology. The support is deeply appreciated. 

Industry-funded university research of the 1920 s and 30 s was dominated by foundation philanthrophy, driven by the attitude that corporate funds should be used solely to benefit mankind and that the academic mission must remain uncompromised by anything but a "strict" division between its research function and the industrial laboratory. The postwar years of the 1940 s and 50 s saw a boom in government funding for research. These funds, however, began to encourage corporate-university alliances, while maintaining a separate academic research entity, a trend which continued into the 70 s. 

Basic chemical research, best done in academic institutions or by contract research organizations, was needed first in order to obtain sucrochemicals of the nature envisioned by Dr. Hass. Thus, early work in sucrochemistry was funded by the Sugar Research Foundation in such research laboratories. An exploratory project oriented towards discovering the fundamental chemistry of sucrose and other carbohydrates had been supported previously at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1943 to 1950. The main purpose of the project, however, was to train carbohydrate chemists and to apply classical carbohydrate chemistry more broadly to sucrose and its close relatives. None of the derivatives produced and studied were found to be of practical importance in later sucrochemical studies, although a number of patent applications were filed and patents issued. Some of these studies were continued in several other laboratories during the early 1950 s, and a number of additional studies were undertaken to elucidate the relative reactivities of the various reactive entities, determine reaction kinetics and to try to make new and possibly useful derivatives. An intensive search was undertaken to find mutual solvents for both hydrophilic sucrose and hydrophobic reactants. 

The decision to become a professor and to pursue an academic research career is an important one. It requires a commitment to work with students to investigate areas that are (1) original, (2) interesting, and (3) important. Only if all three criteria are met will you attract federal or foundation support for your research. I was fortunate that my research group was well funded from its inception. NSF, Department of Energy (DOE), and the Welch Foundation provided reliable and continuous funding for my projects as soon as I took my first job at the University of Texas at Austin. 

We gratefully acknowledge the Robert A. Welch Foundation (Grant number W-1552) for financial support of this work. BJA also thanks the Beckman Foundation for support during the 05-06 academic year. Acknowledgement is made to the donors of the American Chemical Society s Petroleum Research Fund supporting the CO oxidation reactor system construction. 

Acknowledgments This research was supported by a grant from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund, Type DNI. The authors also thank the Department of Chemistry, Case Western Reserve University and the National Science Foundation, Academic Careers in Engineering and Science Program (NSF ACES) for financial support. 

The wide range of funding sources for support of academic chemical research (including industry, multiple federal agencies, state initiatives, universities, and private foundations) facilitates innovative research. 

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