Formerly | Midwest Research Institute |
---|---|
Company type | Nonprofit scientific research institute |
Industry | |
Founded | Kansas City, Missouri (June 17, 1944 ) |
Founder | Kansas City-area business leaders |
Headquarters | 425 Volker Boulevard Kansas City, Missouri, United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Services | |
Number of employees | 550 (in FY13) [1] |
Website | www |
MRIGlobal is an American independent, not-for-profit, contract research organization based in Kansas City, Missouri, with regional offices in Virginia and Maryland. In addition to its own research laboratories, MRIGlobal operates research facilities for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense. [1]
MRIGlobal conducts programs in the areas of molecular diagnostics, antimicrobial resistance, therapeutics, engineering, mobile laboratories, CBRNE technology development and countermeasures, chemical testing facilities, real-time biosurveillance, national security and defense, energy and the environment, and agriculture. [1] [2] The purpose of MRIGlobal is to provide solutions through scientific research, technology development, and technical services for the benefit of government, industry, and the public.
Founded in 1944 during World War II as Midwest Research Institute, the organization's initial mission was to find a way to convert the ammonium nitrate military ordnance plants in Galena, Kansas, Parsons, Kansas, DeSoto, Kansas and El Dorado, Arkansas to peaceful uses of creating fertilizer. Among the nine founders was Kenneth A. Spencer who would make a fortune from the Jayhawk Plant in Galena. Spencer would be chairman of the Institute from 1954 to 1957, and donated money for the Kenneth A. Spencer Laboratories Building and the Spencer Auditorium at MRIGlobal. [4]
MRIGlobal was located first in the former Westport, Missouri City Hall at 40th Terrace and Pennsylvania. That building was torn down in 1955 at which time MRIGlobal moved into its Kansas City headquarters facing the Nelson Art Gallery, and adjacent to University of Missouri - Kansas City and the headquarters of Russell Stovers candy. [5]
MRIGlobal obtained its first contract with NASA in 1961 and its first U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency contract in 1964. In the 1970s, the organization began working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developing tests to detect and measure pollutants. [6]
Expansion and growth continued in the 1980s. In 1982, a venture group was created to commercialize MRIGlobal’s inventions. Major projects included engineering lightweight thermoelectric cooling devices for U.S. Army aircraft. This technology earned an R&D 100 Award, and was used in Operation Desert Storm to keep flight personnel cool while operating in warm climates. [7]
Throughout the next two decades, MRIGlobal expanded its operations, adding locations in Palm Bay, Florida, in 1999; Rockville, Maryland, in 2002; and Frederick, Maryland, in 2003. [7]
In January 2015, MRIGlobal powered up their first online detection database, CBRNE Tech Index.
On March 1, 2011, the Midwest Research Institute was renamed MRIGlobal to reflect its expanded focus. [3] [8]
In 2014, MRIGlobal launched CBRNE Tech Index, a comprehensive database of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) detection equipment. [9]
The University of Missouri–Kansas City is a public research university in Kansas City, Missouri. UMKC is part of the University of Missouri System and has a medical school. As of 2020, the university's enrollment exceeded 16,000 students. It is the largest university and third largest college in the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Richard Harrison Truly was an American fighter pilot, engineer and astronaut who served as a vice admiral in the United States Navy and as the eighth administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1989 to 1992. He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency.
Battelle Memorial Institute is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The institute opened in 1929 but traces its origins to the 1923 will of Ohio industrialist Gordon Battelle which provided for its creation and his mother Annie Maude Norton Battelle who left the bulk of the family fortune to the institute after her death in 1925. Originally focusing on contract research and development work in the areas of metals and material science, Battelle is now an international science and technology enterprise that explores emerging areas of science, develops and commercializes technology, and manages laboratories for customers. It has 3,200 employees, and manages another 29,500 in ten United States Department of Energy National Laboratories.
Jesse Clyde "J. C." Nichols was an American developer of commercial and residential real estate in Kansas City, Missouri. Born in Olathe, Kansas, and a student at the University of Kansas and Harvard University, his most notable developments are the Country Club District and Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, which influenced suburban developments in other parts of the United States. He served leadership roles in local and national real estate organizations. Through these organizations, his ideas about real estate and planning helped to shape methods for racist and anti-Semitic restrictive covenants and zoning. His legacy has come under increasing scrutiny for these covenants, which prohibited Blacks, Jews, and other minorities from living in these neighborhoods.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is both a defense agency and a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for countering weapons of mass destruction and supporting the nuclear enterprise. Its stated mission is to provide "cross-cutting solutions to enable the Department of Defense, the United States Government, and international partners to Deter strategic attack against the United States and its allies; Prevent, reduce, and counter WMD and emerging threats; and Prevail against WMD-armed adversaries in crisis and conflict." DTRA is headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The DTRA mission, organization and management, responsibilities and functions, relationships, authorities, and administration are defined in DoD Directive 5105.62, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) .
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Department of Energy and operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, a joint venture between MRIGlobal and Battelle. Located in Golden, Colorado, NREL is home to the National Center for Photovoltaics, the National Bioenergy Center, and the National Wind Technology Center.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition, comprising 10 contests, that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy. The winners are selected based for the best blending of design architectural and engineering excellence with innovation, market potential, building efficiency, and smart energy production. In the summer of 2018, DOE merged its two student building design competitions into one Solar Decathlon competition.
The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is the U.S Army's main institution and facility for defensive research into countermeasures against biological warfare. It is located on Fort Detrick, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., and is a subordinate lab of the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), headquartered on the same installation.
Reflective surfaces, or ground-based albedo modification (GBAM), is a solar radiation management method of enhancing Earth's albedo. The IPCC described this method as "whitening roofs, changes in land use management, change of albedo at a larger scale ."
The Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), formerly known as the Kansas City Plant, is a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) facility managed and operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies that manufactures "80 percent of non-nuclear components that go into the [United States] nuclear stockpile."
Yudell Leo Luke was an American mathematician who made significant contributions to MRIGlobal, was awarded the N. T. Veatch award for Distinguished Research and Creative Activity in 1975, and appointed as Curator's Professor at the University of Missouri in 1978, a post he held until his death.
Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) is a consortium of American universities headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with offices in Arvada, Colorado and Cincinnati, Ohio and staff at other locations across the country.
Electronic Music Midwest (EMM) is a festival of new electroacoustic music.
Mid-Continent Public Library, officially known as Consolidated Library District #3, is a public library system serving Clay, Platte, and Jackson counties in Missouri, with headquarters in Independence, Missouri.
The 20th CBRNE Command is the United States Army headquarters for defense against Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and high-yield Explosives (CBRNE), headquartered on the site of the defunct Edgewood Arsenal chemical weapons production facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground in northern Maryland.
Lev Petrovich Bulat was a Russian physicist.
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, private foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri. It was founded in 1966 by Ewing Marion Kauffman, who had previously founded the drug company Marion Laboratories. The Kauffman Foundation works with communities to build and support programs that boost entrepreneurship, improve education, and contribute to the vibrancy of Kansas City.
Kenneth Aldred Spencer was a Kansas coal mine owner who transformed a government surplus factory into the world's biggest ammonium nitrate producer. Money from his and his wife's estate was donated to philanthropies throughout Kansas.
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) is a research, policy, and advocacy organization of public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems, and higher education organizations. It has member campuses in all of the United States as well as the District of Columbia, four U.S. territories, Canada, and Mexico.
Alphabet Energy was a startup company founded in 2009 at the University of California, Berkeley by thermoelectrics expert Matthew L. Scullin and Peidong Yang. The company uses nanotechnology and materials science applications to create thermoelectric generators that are more cost effective than previous bismuth telluride-based devices. The company is based in Hayward, California. It started with a license to use silicon nanowire developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They moved from UC Berkeley to offices in San Francisco in 2011, and later to Hayward.