San Diego

George Poste: five years to “to make things happen”. Credit: ASU

Arizona State University (ASU) has hired a scientific heavyweight to head an ambitious, multidisciplinary research centre being built on its Tempe campus.

George Poste — former head of research at drug firm SmithKline Beecham and adviser to the British and US governments on bioterrorism — is set to be named this week as the new director of the Arizona Biodesign Institute (AzBio). Research projects at the institute are expected to include nanotechnology, materials science, robotics, information technology and drug-production methods.

Trained as a virologist and veterinarian in Britain, Poste lives in Arizona. He is a member of the US government's Defense Science Board and chairman of its biodefence task force.

Fifty-eight-year-old Poste says that he has given the ASU “a minimum five-year commitment to make something special happen”.

His appointment was due to be announced at a ceremonial groundbreaking on AzBio's first research building. The $70-million structure is scheduled to be completed in late 2004, and the Arizona legislature is now debating a bill that would provide a further $185 million for three more AzBio research buildings at the ASU.

“Poste is one of the leading scientists in the world, and there is no better person to build AzBio into a world-class centre,” says Michael Crow, the ASU's president.

Charles Arntzen, a plant biologist who has been AzBio's interim director, will return to research, as was previously planned.