Business magnates not just academicians will be appointed to the board of theNational Cold Fusion Institute when it officially opens.
And Jon Huntsman, Ian Cumming and James C. Fletcher have been mentioned as possible recruits. Each has already taken a role in promoting solid-state fusion research and development at the University of Utah.Huntsman, who owns the largest private chemical company in America, told the Deseret News that he helped set up meetings with General Electric and the U. officials but wasn't, and doesn't plan to be, a negotiator for the school.
But U. officials said Huntsman - like Fletcher and Cumming - has been an "adviser."
Huntsman said his firm, Huntsman Chemical Corp., has several joint ventures with GE and so he knows top GE management personally.
Accordingly, Huntsman organized meetings this spring between GE executives and U. officials in an effort to get GE support for fusion research and development. Huntsman said he sat in on the first several meetings, but then he and his GE counterparts turned the matter over to U. officials and lower-level GE officials, respectively.
In June, GE and the U. announced a cooperative research effort, which involves the exchange of personnel and resources to develop the U.'s fusion research and pursue patent protections for any resulting technology.
While GE didn't provide any seed money to the U., James Brophy, vice president for research, said school officials are hopeful funds will be forthcoming. The U., he said, has also entered into discussions with Westinghouse but haven't yet reached a conclusion.
Brophy said 65 companies signed the U.'s confidential disclosure agreement.
"I can't believe that out of that number, 10 to 20 or 30 won't want to participate - including financial participation," said Brophy, who's banking on donations of $10 million to $20 million from private corporations. "If we can show a good active research program, and we know that the science is confirmed, many of those companies will feel that they can't afford not to be part of the action."
Brophy and U. President Chase Peterson told members of the Board of Regents Friday that the structure of the institute's board is "designed to be attractive to corporate participants."
The institute, they said, will be established as a separate, non-profit corporation headed by a full-time director recruited from the corporate world. The board will be composed of two members from the university, one faculty member and several industrialists - likely to include Fletcher and possibly Cumming and Huntsman.
Fletcher, twice director of NASA and former U. president, lent his support early on to the experiments of U. researchers B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann and is now in frequent contact with U. officials on fusion-related matters.
Cumming, chairman of Leucadia National Corp. and a member of the Board of Regents, actively lobbied both the Legislature and the state fusion council for state funds to move the experiments out of the lab into practical application.
It's people with such proven business savvy that the U. hopes to attract to the institute board.
"All of the members will be appointed by the president, so the university will retain control of board membership," Brophy said. "But because the center will be a separate corporation, the institute will be able to operate as an independent research business.
"This will be a sophisticated, scientific and engineering research program with a strong corporate flavor, as distinguished from a university flavor," Brophy said.
*****
(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
Unanimous approval
In a conference call vote, members of the State Board of Regents Friday gave University of Utah President Chase Peterson their blessing to establish the National Cold Fusion Institute.
The unanimous vote, taken to avoid a possible legal technicality, was no surprise.
A day after the U.'s historic fusion announcement on March 23, the regents passed a resolution calling for state money for fusion development. Members since have lobbied both the Legislature and the state's Fusion/Energy Advisory Council, which Monday is expected to release $4.5 million for the establishment of the fusion center.