CITY LIMITS: Future of U. City Science Center

In 1979, Michael Wall and a small group of scientists had an idea to produce medical products previously produced only in university laboratories. They opened a business at 36th and Market streets and in 1980 the firm moved to suburban Malvern. Today, their firm, Centercor, is a leader in the fast-moving field of biotechnology and is worth $1.6 billion. While Centocor may be one of the biggest success stories, it is only one of over 150 area firms that got a start at the University City Science Center. · The center serves as an incubator for infant business ventures in the areas of science and technology, which mostly originate with the faculty and students of its member universities. Now the 26-year-old center is in the hands of Louis Padulo, who said he hopes to expand its size and foster something unique in the university community -- cooperation. "We don't have to teach them how to compete with each other, their used to doing that," Padulo said. "The cooperating is the hard part, and that's what I think we can help them with." The 54-year old Padulo, who took over as president in October, said he wants to pool member universities' expertise and market jointly produced services to government and private corporations. Additionally, Padulo hopes that the center will be used as a neutral ground through which members can share high-tech government gifts such as supercomputers which would otherwise be to costly too give to any one institution. University administrators and Science Center management said they are pleased with Padulo and his familiarity with both university administration and research. "He understands intellectual property and technology transfer, and how to make that intellectual property pay off for the individual institutions, the consortium of institutions and the city of Philadelphia," said University Senior Vice President Marna Whittington, who sits on the Science Center's board. Though pleased with Padulo's credentials, most University administrators and center officers said they are taking a "wait and see" stance on what long term changes Padulo will bring to the center. · Padulo replaced Lawrence Chakrin, who resigned as Science Center president last November. Padulo most recently served for two years as president of the University of Alabama at Huntsville, until he was fired in the summer of 1990. Padulo also served as dean of Boston University's School of Engineering for 11 years before taking the Alabama-Huntsville presidency. Padulo has also taught at Stanford University, Moorehouse College, and Georgia Tech University, where he earned his doctorate in electrical engineering. John Herndon, the president of Huntsville's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, said recently in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer that Padulo "tried to build bridges between the black community and the white community . . . some people felt uncomfortable with that." "That was the reason he was asked to leave," Herndon said. "The chancellor pulled the rug out from under him, but there was strong support for him in the community." · The science park, located on Market Street between 34th and 38th streets, was founded in 1963 by 23 local colleges and universities, with a combined investment of $500,000. The University owns a 42 percent share of the center, but members receive no dividends and provide no funding. The center bills itself as the oldest business incubator and the first and largest research center in the country. To date, the center has spawned 153 new companies including enterprises such as Centocor, SMG -- a designer of computer simulated job training software, rated by Inc. Magazine as one of fastest growing privately-held firms in the country, and Human Design Systems -- a computer maker. Science Center users say that they are happy with the resources and business atmosphere the center provides. "It's a very nice collaborative atmosphere in which to do business," said SMG founder and Management Lecturer Michael Aronson. "The companies here try to help each other . . . and employees like being part of the university community." For the price of office space, the center offers industry-supplied experts who evaluate the quality of an inventor's technology, its marketability, production plans, and even finance and sell the product or company to interested parties. In addition, the center offers tenants such amenities as daycare services and athletic facilities. To provide such services, the center has built, and maintains, an extensive network of ties within the finance, and technology industries, in part through its industry supplied experts, Padulo said. In addition to being a business incubator, the center assists in renewal of urban property and offers temporary office and research space to its member universities for overflow and politically sensitive research. Padulo said the center is largely self-sufficient -- using profits earned from real estate development done for the private sector, financial services provided to the private sector, and a 100 percent return on venture capital supplied to its succesful fledgling firms. Padulo claims that the center is a good deal for all parties involved, noting that it employs 6000 tax-paying employees, has spruced up Market Street, and attracts high-tech industry to Philadelphia away from established centers such as suburban Boston and Silicon Valley. Member universities benefit from receiving royalties on technology developed by their faculty that might otherwise be left in the university labs.

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