BY JOEL SELIGMAN

From its earliest days, Rochester has been a community with the capacity to remake itself in the face of fundamental economic changes. The city's founders harnessed the waters of the Genesee and the Erie Canal to become the nation's first boom town. As the agricultural heartland shifted west, the city transformed itself from the flour city to the flower city. In the late 19th century, visionaries in the fields of optics and film combined technology and manufacturing to launch industry giants such as Eastman Kodak and Bausch & Lomb. These companies, in turn, have served as the incubators for a new generation of ventures such as Xerox, Carestream Health, and ITT Space Systems Division.

The common catalyst at the heart of these eras of growth and transformation has been innovation, and it is the ability to harness new discoveries and technologies that will propel and define Rochester's future. Rochester today is again in the midst of a dramatic realignment that will reshape our community, one that I believe will lead to a city and region whose economic foundation increasingly will be knowledge-based industries.

Innovation is the byproduct of scientific inquiry, and it requires the careful assembly of resources, infrastructure, and scientific talent. The University of Rochester and the region's universities and colleges play a critical role in fostering an environment that promotes collaboration and public, private, and academic partnerships that encourage technological innovation and commercial growth.

The Rochester region is home to 19 colleges and universities. Collectively, these institutions enroll over 90,000 students and grant over 15,000 degrees annually. This education infrastructure has resulted in one of the most highly educated workforces in the nation; recent surveys rank the region third in the nation in life sciences degrees and sixth for degrees in science and engineering. For many decades Rochester's education programs have complemented the region's commercial sector. For example, the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics was created in 1929 with the support of Kodak and Bausch & Lomb to train the next generation of innovators for the Rochester's optics industry.

Now as we move toward an economy that is fueled by the development of new technologies, the region's strong and growing portfolio of university-based research will serve as a catalyst for future growth. Last year, the University of Rochester received $390 million in external research funding, and RIT received more than $48 million. These funds support cutting-edge research programs in the fields of biomedical engineering, fuel cells and solar energy, neuromedicine, imaging, sustainability, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disease, laser energetics, remote sensing technologies, vaccine biology, nanotechnology, and cancer.

One of the keys to Rochester's economic future will be the success of our collective efforts to harness university research for commercial growth. This means strengthening academic and industry research partnerships, fostering the growth of early-stage technology companies, and attracting companies to relocate to the region. Rochester already has enough of the "raw material" to become a research and development hub in several high-technology sectors such as biotechnology, alternative energy, and advanced optics and imaging systems.

If we can continue the strides that we have made in recent years to expand our research infrastructure, promote entrepreneurship, support high-technology start-ups, and give workers the skills they need to compete in the 21st-century economy, then we will build a new and enduring economic foundation for the region. In doing so, we will create a community that is a magnet for world-class scientists, engineers, clinicians, educators, and cultural leaders.

It is appropriate as we look back on 175 years of Rochester's history to reflect upon the generations who weathered the disruptive storms of new technologies and demographic and geographic trends to create a community that was even stronger than the one that preceded it. The history of Rochester has shown us that with effective and visionary leadership, we can look beyond times of economic upheaval and collectively build toward a shared vision of the future.

I subscribe to the belief that our best days are ahead of us. Here at the University of Rochester our motto is Meliora, which means "ever better." I can think of no better phrase that describes the spirit of the City of Rochester and the University that bears its name.

Joel Seligman is president of the University of Rochester. Formerly dean of Washington University's School of Law and of the University of Arizona's College of Law, he has lived in Rochester since 2005, when he became the UR's president.