Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

Endowed chairs a wise investment in S.C.’s future

FIND THE common thread:

• John Ziegert is an expert at the creation of extremely precise manufacturing systems for automotive production. Dr. Ziegert holds three patents and has applied for three more.

• Brian Benicewicz is a respected researcher in the field of high-tech plastics, specifically the polymers that can be used in such things as the membranes in power-supplying fuel cells. Dr. Benicewicz formerly held the post of director of the New York State Center for Polymer Synthesis.

• Jay Moskowitz is an expert in the field of streamlining health care records and encouraging medical research. Dr. Moskowitz served for more than 20 years as a top official at the National Institutes of Health.

Well, they’re all smart. More to the point, they all now do their work in South Carolina — and none of them did five years ago.

All three, along with a dozen others, came to South Carolina thanks to the endowed chairs program — a program that the S.C. House last week wisely voted to extend past 2010. The Centers for Economic Excellence play a key role in South Carolina’s effort to build a 21st century economy. As part of pursuing that economic growth, the Senate should do the same.

These top researchers have pulled up stakes and moved to South Carolina because the endowed chairs program has helped pave the way for a gathering of talent and resources in their particular fields. Endowed chairs are not created at random; they are matched to areas where South Carolina has an advantage that can, if exploited, create economic opportunity. Money from state coffers has to be matched by outside investment.

This is not a program just to hire a few Ph.Ds. It is using the dollars created by the lottery to change the economic playing field for South Carolina — to break our pattern of being the low-cost, low-salary state. As this continues, it should begin to create spin-off companies that attract capital — and create good jobs — to utilize what these researchers can bring.

Don’t believe it? North Carolina does. It’s spending even more than before to create more endowed chairs. It is competing for talent in the same way as South Carolina.

Gov. Mark Sanford has complained about some of the ways that private matching funds have come into the program. He fears that companies are taking government incentives and lobbing them right back in the form of matching funds. That is certainly something to keep an eye on, long term, since one objective of these efforts is to generate a cluster of talent and ideas that draws in private investment.

It is, however, no reason to hold off on extending South Carolina’s commitment to the program past 2010. This extension would reassure potential investors and researchers that this state is serious about what it’s trying to accomplish.

The endowed chairs fit right in with what S.C. research universities are trying to do: MUSC and medical research, Clemson and the International Center for Automotive Research, and USC and Innovista.

Those efforts should begin bearing fruit in 2010 and beyond — if our commitment to them is as strong as it needs to be. We demonstrate that by continuing to invest in endowed chairs.