Taking His Knowledge To School
DAVID EASSON
Title: Director, WPI Life Sciences & Bioengineering Center
Hometown: Wilmington, Del.
Residence: Shrewsbury
Education: Bachelor's, University of South Carolina; Doctorate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
For a university to play a big role influencing two industries of the present and future, having someone lead the effort who has a lengthy history in those industries can help. Earlier this year, Worcester Polytechnic Institute found that leader in David Easson, a biotechnology industry veteran and founder of two Worcester startups.
You have a long history of innovation in the biotech industry. How has that prepared you for this new role?
Since 1988, I've really been managing and leading technical development groups, development programs and research programs. The way I see my role here and also in the corporate world, where you're directing and leading groups, is to provide the people at the bench level with the resources they need to do their jobs. A lot of that translates to money, but money, equipment, personnel and space -- those issues are the same whether you're in a corporate lab or an academic lab.
One of the concerns during the interview process was the issue that we have faculty who have been here a long time, they have unique personalities. How are you going to able to deal with those kinds of people? I don't see them as being any different than someone in a corporate environment who's running a lab, or the director or a VP of a certain department. They've gotten to where they are because they're good, solid researchers, they know how to get the things they need to be successful and -- like in the corporate world -- they can also have quirky, unique personalities.
How is the atmosphere of WPI compared to that of other institutions?
The two academic institutions I have experience with are both technical institutes: MIT and now WPI. I think both of those institutes are different because they were really founded on the basis of translating science and engineering advancements to products that help society. I think that is very much alive here at WPI. You hear that coming from the president and the administration all the time; that is really core to everything we do here. I think there is a focus toward commercialization and getting things out into the market that you might not have at a major research university that might be more focused on basic research.
More specifically, how different do you see WPI from MIT?
WPI has a stronger emphasis on undergraduate research. Some of that is changing now. MIT was very much driven by graduate research and graduate funding, at least when I was there (more than 20 years ago). Here, I think there are about 1,000 grad students and about 4,000 undergrads. But at the same time, WPI is making a commitment to expanding the graduate education and the research here.
Many people like the idea of moving into roles in education in which they believe they can make a difference. Has that been something that has motivated you, either today or in the past?
Absolutely. I have had an interest and involvement in the life sciences and biotechnology industry here in Central Massachusetts. I've watched and participated in the growth of the whole industry in Central Mass., so I've kept in contact with people here at WPI as the life sciences and bioengineering center was being built, and as they got funding for a bio-manufacturing training center here in the new building (on Prescott Street). It's that interest and trying to bring some of the things I've learned in my experience to help further advance life sciences and bioengineering here that made me very interested in the position at WPI.
What are two or three things the general public might not be aware of about innovations in life sciences and bioengineering?
Many business owners and even the general public may not see the potential of innovations in life sciences and bioengineering. Probably every time you go to the hospital you're seeing and utilizing technologies that are bioengineering- or life science-related. A lot of the drugs people are taking are biological products that came out of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical research. ... Even today, antibodies and other products that are used to treat arthritis, cancer, and some of those bioengineering products were made here at Abbott (Laboratories). Some of the earliest advances were kidney dialysis, which was bioengineering and one of the earliest forms of a life-saving technology for people with kidneys that weren't functioning any longer; infusions that are delivered through infusion pumps, utilizing all kinds of devices and surgical procedures that come out of bioengineering research and development. Some of the latest advancements that are in development now around tissue regeneration I think are going to be very important as those things advance and we're able to regenerate damaged tissue or tissue that's lost due to disease.
What are some things the average business owner or executive would want to know about the work, especially the research, that is being done in the center?
First, WPI made a commitment to bring most of the university's life science and bioengineering research under one building here. So there are five academic departments that are represented in this building. That has fostered some very interesting and dynamic collaborative research efforts, one of them around tissue engineering. I think what a local business owner might be interested in is the diverse work that's going on. Not just in life sciences but health care in general, everything from remotely measuring blood-oxygen levels to robotic devices to help surgery, to health care information technology. As a businessperson myself, I've been impressed by the scope and diversity of the work going on here.
Regarding WPI's emphasis of teamwork over competition, is that more reflective of how work is conducted in the corporate world today, especially life sciences and bioengineering? Or is it something that the corporate world needs more of?
Everything is done in multidisciplinary teams. There are very few projects that are so narrow that one group of experts in a single discipline can carry out themselves. Everything is multi-disciplinary. Biologists, biomedical engineers, chemical engineers, chemists, robotics engineers and IT engineers are all coming together in some cases to build something that may look like one thing to the end user but it's really a system of a lot of different things that have to come together. So, the teamwork is required. You couldn't be successful without teamwork.
Is it tough to get people of all different disciplines together, talking and getting on the same page?
It's easy for students; it may be harder for people in industries, especially if you've been in a certain niche for a couple of decades. Employers really value the fact that a student would come to them with that kind of experience. And I know, being on the hiring side before, we hired a number of people from WPI. It's one thing that an employer really values, because these students have already been exposed to working in project teams.
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