The university was well positioned to play this role, and materials research was a natural fit: The university had been a leader in polymer research for years and trained thousands of scientists and engineers. Many of them had gone on to staff the research labs of large tire companies. Because the labs were so deep in talent and so rich in expertise, the companies had not shut them down when they relocated their manufacturing operations. So the Akron area, Proenza knew, had a tremendous knowledge base, and much of that knowledge pertained to the materials involved in making tires: rubber, synthetics, steel. All that was needed was to reawaken and repurpose that knowledge, by applying it to marketable products that were urgently needed in the 21st century.

Today, the College of Engineering and the separate College of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Akron, with a combined 120 faculty members and over 700 graduate and postdoctoral students, has grown into the nation’s largest academic program devoted to the study of polymers—and is acknowledged as one of the world’s most important concentrations of polymer expertise. Researchers at the two colleges are working on advanced materials that include high-temperature ceramics, composites, and novel metal alloys. These are transforming the auto industry, and the aerospace and defense industries as well.

When Proenza described the Akron Model as being university-centric, he did not mean that the university must control or lead all initiatives—only that activity and initiatives would radiate out from and around the university, and that a quest for knowledge would always be involved.

One of those initiatives was the Austen BioInnovation Insti­tute, founded in 2008—a collaboration of the University of Akron, Akron Children’s Hospital, First Energy, the Knight Foundation, and Summa Health System. The institute’s mission is to “bring together the best minds and the most creative thinkers” to tackle health-care issues, by combining “entrepreneurial spirit with scientific innovation to achieve powerful results.” An important part of the research conducted at Austen BioInnovation centers is on the advanced polymers that will be essential in medical devices and biomedical applications. And the research there can get pretty wild, with explorations into paints that emit light, coatings that are self-healing, and contact-lens materials that change color based on the wear­er’s insulin levels.

Proenza also did not suggest that university-centric activities always center on the University of Akron itself. Kent State University, also based near Akron, has its own programs for polymer research. Its Glenn H. Brown Liquid Crystal Institute is named after the inventor of the liquid-crystal display (LCD) and is the birthplace of this now-ubiquitous material. At Ohio State University (OSU), based 150 miles to the west of Akron in Columbus, scientists are also deeply involved in polymer research, focusing on the link between polymers and nanotechnology. The Wright Center at OSU has brought together six educational institutions and over 60 corporate partners (including Goodyear, GE, Boeing, DuPont, Battelle, and Honda) and played a key role in creating several new companies.