Boosting Innovation

As the ninth most common element on earth, titanium is not considered rare—but it is expensive to process. Prohibitive costs currently limit use of the material beyond its critical role in the aerospace, defense, and chemical industries; however, Fang’s research could transform titanium into a household metal. His method cuts the amount of energy and production time needed to  process the element by more than 75 percent, making it a revolutionary innovation that could impact all of Utah and beyond.

The Beehive State ranks first in the U.S. for innovation capacity and outcomes, per the Innovation Intelligence Index. Home to 16 public colleges and universities, including two research-intensive universities, Utah’s education system catalyzes the state’s top innovation ecosystems in aeronautics, energy production, finance, technology, and life sciences. With this valuable system, Utah is positioned as a rising start-up hub, with more than 330 companies launched from the U alone.

“Higher education is Utah’s most powerful economic engine. We connect research innovation with market needs. And we don’t just create companies—we build healthier communities and solve problems that matter to people right here in our state,” U President Taylor Randall HBA’90 says. “That’s the real return on investment.”

Under Randall’s vision, the U aims to produce paradigm-shifting research with unsurpassed societal impact. That mission requires better pipelines to move ideas into production. In 2024, the U launched the Applied Medical Engineering Lab and its first Remote and Austere Conditions Grand Challenge, offering up to $1 million to faculty developing solutions for rural communities and military personnel and others in isolated environments. The U also partnered with EPIC Ventures to provide faculty entrepreneurs with funding, business expertise, and advisory networks to help turn promising ideas into thriving start-ups.

“As a major research university, our challenge is making scientific discovery faster and increasing innovation’s real-world impact,” says Erin Rothwell PhD’04, U vice president for research. “The stakes are high—if we don’t accelerate this process now, our children won’t enjoy the same quality of life we have in 20 years.”

To speed up life sciences discoveries, the U will complete construction on a one-of-a-kind building, the James LeVoy Sorenson Center for Medical Innovation (SCMI), thanks, in large part, to a generous lead gift of $22 million from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation. SCMI will house innovation labs, symposium space, manufacturing sterilization facilities, fresh tissue operation tables, and start-up incubators. “A building like this just doesn’t exist,” Mark Paul BA’87, executive director of the Center for Medical Innovation, notes. “This allows us to shine in a way that no other university can.”

As the former global division president of Stryker Neurovascular, a medical technology leader based in Salt Lake City, Paul understands how the life sciences create jobs across the economic spectrum—from physicians to manufacturing workers. Utah ranks as the third fastest-growing state in the life sciences industry, with some 1,600 companies spanning medical devices, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and imaging.

Paul now oversees the Bench to Bedside program—launched 15 years ago and now with 325+ inventions to its credit—connecting student inventors with manufacturing opportunities. From a cancer-illuminating portable wand to an expandable tool that reinforces broken bones, the products students design could transform medical treatment in Utah and beyond.

“I think this next generation will be the greatest inventors in the history of mankind,” Paul says. “They were born into innovation.”

Building the Economy

Students come to Fang’s lab from various paths, including manufacturing, and chemical and metallurgical engineering. Together, these undergraduate and graduate students are forging a manufacturing workforce as strong as the titanium structures they’re fusing with lasers and heat.

Across the country, a skilled workforce is essential to attracting employers. Utah’s position as home to the nation’s third most well-trained and educated workforce owes much to the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) schools, which enrolled more than 240,000 students in the 2024 school year alone. 

“Right now, technological advancements are driving a knowledge economy that demands the most well-educated citizenry and well-trained labor force in human history,” Natalie Gochnour BS’84 MS’88, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, recently told reporters at a press conference about the value of higher education. “Training is what universities do to help people get a job. Education includes intellectual and personal development that’s deemed essential to civil society. At Utah’s institutions of higher learning, we do both.”

In 2024, about 72 percent of students graduating from USHE schools earned degrees that relate to high-wage and high-demand jobs. These are the much-needed future mechanical engineers, nurse practitioners, and software developers of the state. Each engineering or computer science job in Utah supports up to two additional jobs, according to a 2022 report from the Gardner Institute.

Beyond workforce development, USHE schools themselves supported approximately 132,000 jobs in 2024, about 5.5 percent of jobs statewide. Higher education also directly contributed $12 billion to Utah’s economy—with the U and Utah State University, the state’s research institutions, accounting for $10 billion of that impact.

Research universities attract substantial outside funding. These grants percolate into the economy through facilities and administrative costs, covering everything from utilities to building maintenance. Annual research funding brings $134 million to USU and nearly $700 million to the U. For every dollar invested in education, the economic return more than doubles—outpacing industries like oil and gas extraction or air transportation, according to a recent report from the Gardner Institute.

“The economic impact of higher education is multi-pronged,” Rothwell says. “You can’t just pinpoint it to start-ups or bringing in federal grants. It’s a complete ecosystem that changes the nature of the economy and the future of Utah.”

Supporting Research

For someone who holds the world’s only patent on how to create titanium primary metal with less energy, emissions, and cost, Fang is decidedly humble. He left his industry job of 11 years to come to the U where he would be paid less but could research more. “Working for a company, you are assigned to one product. That’s your thing,” Fang says. “I like the university environment, where we have more freedom to work on different areas.”

Fang’s research has spanned hard materials, hydrogen storage, refractory, reactive, and rare earth metals,  and now, additive manufacturing—a field that didn’t exist 20 years ago. The ability to adapt and respond to technological advances is crucial to navigating the future, especially now, as university research in the U.S. faces unstable federal funding and is losing ground in critical technology leadership.

From 2003 to 2007, the U.S. dominated 60 of 64 foundational technologies that shape the global economy, national security, defense, energy, health, and more, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Today, the U.S. leads in just seven areas—vaccines, quantum computing, genetic engineering, and nuclear medicine among them. The race to reclaim technological leadership is on, and leaders in Utah are feeling the heat.

“We all know that we are in an arms race to control artificial intelligence,” Utah Senate President Stuart Adams BA’78 said in his opening address of the Utah legislative session in January. “The country that controls AI will, in turn, control the world.”

Adams urged Utahns to lead the way, and the U is already answering that call with Randall’s One-U Responsible AI Initiative, which aims to harness AI for societal good. Researchers across campus are tackling similarly urgent issues that can save lives and improve the world. Scientists are studying food scarcity and ways to leverage communications research and psychology to develop innovative mental health interventions. Meanwhile, Utah’s geology—with 40 of the 50 critical minerals needed for emerging technologies—makes the U a strategic hub for geoscience research with national security and defense applications.

“What many people don’t realize is that university research is quietly powering economic growth in ways that go far beyond campus,” Randall explains. “What might look like abstract work in a laboratory directly translates to jobs, new companies, and innovations that solve real-world problems. Investment in higher education research is actually one of the most powerful economic engines we have—and the impact ripples through every part of society.” u

Amy Choate-Nielsen is associate director of strategic communications at the U.