Lawrence, KU muscle up to No. 9 in Forbes list

Thanks in large part to KU, the city of Lawrence cracked the top 10 of Forbes magazine's annual Best Places for Business and Careers list (Forbes, May 22) for the first time, ranking ninth out of the 96 cities surveyed in the "smaller metro areas" category.

Las Cruces, N.M., was at the top of the Forbes magazine smaller metro areas list, followed by Iowa City, Iowa; Tyler, Texas; Punta Gorda, Fla.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Fort Walton Beach, Fla.; Bryan-College Station, Texas; Pocatello, Idaho; Lawrence; and Rochester, Minn.

Simons Biosciences Research Laboratories

KU has helped Lawrence's economy by making one of the largest jumps in the nation in attracting federal research dollars. Recently released data shows that KU witnessed the largest growth rate for federally funded life science research among the nation's top 50 comprehensive public universities. From fiscal years 1996 to 2000, KU saw an 87 percent increase, jumping from $25 million in federal funding of life science research in 1996 to just under $47 million in 2000.

That jump has led to the creation of thousands of jobs throughout the state and in some cases resulted in the formation of spin-off companies.

This success was reinforced recently when KU's pharmacy school ranked fourth in the nation for attracting funding from the National Institutes of Health last year.

In 2001, KU's pharmacy school received 33 awards from the NIH, totaling about $8.44 million. The three schools listed above KU were the University of California, San Francisco (47 awards/$18.5 million); the University of Utah (35 awards/$12.3 million); and the University of Arizona (18 awards/$9.1 million.)

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