Another building to follow big gift By Brian Wallheimer

Purdue President Martin Jischke said housing the new Alfred Mann Institute will require a new building, though the cost and other planning details are still in the works.

Jischke said Friday, as he announced the $100 million endowment, that the agreement between the Purdue Research Foundation and the Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering requires the university make 30,000 square feet available for the institute.

The Alfred Mann Institute would lease the facility, which would be built in Discovery Park, from Purdue.

"We're hopeful the state will help us," said Jischke, who said he got positive responses from preliminary talks with state leaders.

The gift is the largest for research in Purdue's history and will open the institute, which will speed the process for getting research ideas to consumers.

The hope is to put more life-saving and life-changing biomedical engineering ideas into practical use in a shorter amount of time. Currently the process can take years just to obtain funding.

"There is no greater pleasure than knowing what one is doing to help people live better, longer and healthier lives," said Alfred Mann, founder of the Mann Foundation.

Mann, a billionaire entrepreneur in the biomedical engineering field, is hoping to establish at least 12 institutes worldwide. Purdue is the third, joining the University of Southern California and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

Gov. Mitch Daniels told Jischke, who is retiring, the endowment was "the capstone to all you have done for Indiana."

Part of the agreement requires preferential treatment for Indiana companies that want to manufacture products that come from the institute.

"Don't tell us Indiana and Purdue cannot be centers of the science and innovation that lies ahead," Daniels said.

A. Stephen Dahms, Mann Foundation president and chief executive officer, declined to answer questions about several universities declining the endowments because of disagreements over property rights and revenue sharing.

"We're here to talk about Purdue today," Dahms said.

Neither side would discuss details of the agreement, but Jischke said the university made sure its interests were taken care of.

"We have done our homework," Jischke said.

The next step is for Purdue and the Mann Foundation to choose five members each for a board of directors which can hire an administrator. Then other staff can be brought in and the institute can start its work.