Portland State Magazine Winter 2012

Greening the Portland skyline PSU MAY SOON BE home co a"living" building, rhe Oregon Sustainability Center, rendered here. The $62 million, seven– story structure is designed co capture and process all its own water, generate its own electricity, and leave no carbon footprint. Ir will be a resource for education, green business, and energy and environmental research and development. Groundbreaking is planned for early 2012 if the Oregon Legislature approves $37 million in state-issued bonds. Unsettling news PARK BLOCKS MULTNOMAH COUNTY'S Native Americans are three rimes more likely to live in poverty than their white counterparts. Their income is, on average, half that of whites, their unemployment rate 70 percent higher, and their children 20 rimes more likely co be placed in foster care. This information comes from "An Unsettling Profile," the second of seven planned reports from P U 's School of Social Work and the Coalition of Communities of Color. The first report, a general survey of racial disparities in Multnomah County, was detailed in "Color Matters," Portland State Magazine, Fall 2010. Team science MANY OF TODAY'S most innovative products are developed when scientists from varied disciplines collaborate. But mixing vastly different experiences, terminologies, methods, and backgrounds can cause chaos, not creativity. Professor Melissa Appleyard in rhe PSU School of Business Administration is studying scientists at eight nanomedicine development centers. Her goal: identify those who have developed what she calls a "knowledge-meshing capability" that occurs when scientists merge different fields and create new ways of approaching challenges. ■ W INTE R 2012 PORTLAND STATE M AGAZINE 5