Research pays off.

It's a fact few in this city understand better than Mo Elbestawi, the man who just took over McMaster University's entire research portfolio.

It's already a huge enterprise worth $345 million a year -- equivalent to about one-third the City of Hamilton's entire operating budget -- but he has plans to make it much bigger than that.

"I'm talking about a significant jump," he said.

His success as the university's new vice-president of research and international affairs will have significant bearing on the fate of the city itself as Hamilton tries to point its ship away from manufacturing and toward the richer, cleaner shores of the knowledge economy.

He sees research creating the "university of the future" and hopes McMaster will lead the country in such areas as new fuels, renewable energy, medicine, water resources, software and nanotechnology.

Elbestawi, a genial 56-year-old engineer, lover of the arts and proud "hockey nut," officially took over the job on Canada Day, filling the seat previously occupied by Mamdouh Shoukri, who left McMaster to become president of York University.

Shoukri's departure had raised concerns over what would happen to the energy he had sparked by launching the McMaster Innovation Park -- the university's spinoff venture on the sprawling property previously occupied by the Camco plant on Longwood Road South.

But Elbestawi -- like Shoukri, a former dean of engineering -- is confident McMaster will not only maintain the momentum but actually crank it up.

"Dr. Shoukri certainly should be credited for creating a very solid foundation for the research portfolio," he said.

"I come in with an agenda of growth. I come in with an agenda of economic development. I come in with an agenda of developing partnerships, creating new opportunities."

Elbestawi started his engineering education with a bachelor's degree from Alexandria University, in his native Egypt, after abandoning his first love: architecture.

"I wasn't very good at it," he says, laughing. "It's a good thing I recognized this early on."

His interest turned to machines, especially production machinery, leading him to specialize in manufacturing engineering, one of McMaster's traditional strengths and a field in which he became an international expert.

Elbestawi moved to Hamilton in 1974 and has been here ever since. He earned his master's and PhD degrees at McMaster and then spent seven years doing research and development in the private sector.

He returned to academia as a professor with a strong determination to build more, better and stronger links between the university and the private sector, making a major mark with the creation of the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute -- an intersection of academic, government and private research.

During his six years as dean of engineering, the faculty grew not only in profile but in size, from 2,400 undergrads to 3,000, and from 400 graduate students to 750.

As he describes his plans for the broader university, Elbestawi frequently uses such terms as "aggressive" and "wealth creation." Once, those would have been dirty words in the context of Canadian universities. Today, they are a mantra.

Elbestawi's mandate is to increase McMaster's share of research funding from both government and the private sector alike, and to search the world for the best partners.

He lists several benefits:

* Better education for McMaster students in all faculties as they realize opportunities to study while working in their fields.

* An open window on current research and technology.

* Better research outcomes.

* An enhanced reputation for the university.

* Greater economic prosperity for the city at large, as businesses build in Hamilton or move here.

"I don't want to give the impression that we're going to turn this place into an outfit that does research projects for the private sector," he said. "Far from it, actually, but we will use partnerships with the private sector to the benefit of our students, since they are the key and No. 1 priority."

Wade Hemsworth
The Hamilton Spectator

Examples of some research initiatives at McMaster University:

* The Initiative for Automotive Manufacturing Innovation -- a five-year, $46.5-million project -- involves 200 researchers in a partnership among McMaster, the University of Waterloo, the province and industry to develop lightweight, affordable cars.

* McMaster is building a $10.6-million micro- and nano-systems lab to create medical and environmental screening devices tiny enough to be swallowed or injected.

* A national, multi-university team, led by McMaster researcher Jonathan Bramson, is exploring ways to train the body's immune system to fight cancer.

* English professor and globalization specialist Imre Szeman is examining anti-Americanism around the world -- why it's so popular and what it means for politics, culture and the future.

* Byron Spencer, director of the Research Institute for Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population, is examining whether social programs can support Canada's aging population.

* Human resources and management professor Isik Zeytinoglu is studying whether flexible work schedules would reduce or deepen work-life conflict.

* Hendrik Poinar, an associate professor of anthropology, is using core samples from the plague pits of London, England, to resolve whether the Black Death was the result of a terrible flu or a SARS-like epidemic.