MSU Research Foundation Podcast

From Research to Real-World Impact with MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz

• MSU Research Foundation • Season 2 • Episode 4

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In this episode, David Washburn and Jeff Wesley talk with Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz about how research, policy, and partnerships drive economic growth and improve lives across Michigan.

Kevin reflects on his career in concussion research and how federally funded science led to major changes in NCAA and NFL safety standards. He also discusses the importance of advocating for public research funding, MSU’s expanding presence in Detroit, Grand Rapids, and East Lansing, and new initiatives supporting healthcare innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship. The conversation explores MSU’s “one team” approach to collaboration, emerging workforce and AI programs, and what gives him optimism about Michigan’s innovation ecosystem.

Host: David Washburn and Jeff Wesley
Guests: Kevin Guskiewicz Wesley (President, Michigan State University)
Producers: Jenna McNamara and Doug Snitgen
Music: "Devil on Your Shoulder" by Will Harrison, licensed via Epidemic Sound

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David Washburn:

In this episode today, my colleague Jeff Wesley and I sat down with MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz, and we talked about research and commercialization and economic development. I hope you like this episode. It was great to visit with the president.

David Washburn:

Welcome to the MSU Research Foundation podcast. I'm joined today with my colleague Jeff Wesley, who leads our venture practice. And we have the pleasure of having a conversation today with uh Michigan State University president Kevin Guskiewicz. Kevin is a sports medicine scholar in the field of neuroscience and was a pioneer studying the impact of concussions in sports. He is the 22nd president of Michigan State University, a role which he began on March 4th, 2024. Wow. Two years.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

It's going fast, dude.

David Washburn:

You know, previously he was at the University of North Carolina where he was a faculty member, a dean, and eventually became chancellor from 2019 to 2024. As part of Kevin's duties at Michigan State University, he also serves on the board of directors of the MSU Research Foundation. And we're delighted to have him here today. So welcome, Kevin.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Jeff. It's always good to hang out and uh talk research.

David Washburn:

It's hard to believe. It's been two years. It seems like uh it's probably gone really fast for you.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

It has. It's been a great two years. You know, that listening and learning tour uh uh took me about five, six months, but it uh uh uh gave me a better understanding of how incredible this place is, where the where the challenges were, but more importantly where the opportunities were, and uh we're we're latching onto those.

David Washburn:

You know, there's a lot you can cover with a university president. Um uh but given the role of the Foundation, uh you know, I want to concentrate the conversation on university research and specifically talk about economic development and economic impact and commercialization because that's uh that's our sweet spot. And so, you know, one easy way to start the conversation is to maybe start with your work in um in neuroscience and and um concussion because I think that is a uh that's a great story about how you know uh you get federal research dollars to go sort of explore these problems and you come up with um uh recommendations that that that have huge impacts. So I wondered if you could just just start from that time and go from there.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

You know, it really began uh back when I was working for the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the early nineties, and um you know, I was curious. I was like, why and then I was on the sports medicine staff there, and you know, why are we returning players back into the same game with a suspected concussion would would hold somebody out with a knee injury for two weeks, and it just didn't make sense. And but we really knew very little about concussions at the time. It was uh you know described as a hidden injury, and um I often said concussions are like snowflakes, uh which we see quite a few of those here in in Michigan. Uh but no two are alike. It made it difficult to study it. So so I um decided to head off to the University of Virginia to do my doctorate, and then off uh after three years there, uh where I get a good foundation in in conducting research in traumatic brain injury in sport. And and then at UNC we developed uh uh the research lab there, uh the Matthew Gfeller Sport Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, which was really built uh uh around improving safety in sport, but really focusing on sport concussion. And from there we began to put protocols in place for the NCAA, the NFL, changed the kickoff role as a result of some of the technology we built to put in helmets to better understand uh the number of impacts that a certain position player takes, the magnitude of those impacts, and so it's sort of was you know changing policy through uh data.

David Washburn:

Yeah, it's really it's really interesting because you know, back then versus today it's so different. Today you see players with these sort of guardian caps on, and you see smart helmets, and you see all other kinds of technologies and these rule changes that that that you talked about and policy changes, and and it's really um yeah, just demonstrates um you know kind of the the long-standing partnership between, you know, the federal government funding research, uh basic research, and um enabling these sort of breakthroughs or these new discoveries that can help um you know solve solve these problems. And you know, it just as a transition it it it makes me think about the some of the current pressures on the system, um, you know, federal cuts that MSU and and every university in North America is is experiencing right now. So I wondered if you know you could comment on the current state of the relationship.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

Sure. I mean it's it's been a challenging year uh since uh the new administration came in in in uh D.C. and I've probably spent more time in Washington, D.C. in the last uh year than I have uh probably in the last five or six years combined. And and it's about getting up there, telling our story, meeting with our congressional leaders, uh serving on the Council for Competitiveness. Uh there's it's a group of about 13, 14 university presidents and business leaders and talking about how uh if if America is going to maintain its competitiveness, uh it needs uh our leading research universities, those 70 AAU institutions, the 70 best research universities in the world, one could argue. Uh, and it has to be done in a partnership with the federal government. And uh uh you know, we have our own stories here uh of of how important that partnership has been. Uh and we need to just continue to tell that story, talk about the importance, the impact that that research has uh uh here at you know, whether it's biomedical research, advancing new uh medical treatments and technologies, or uh if you think about the important work in Michigan around agriculture and trying to make sure that we're uh we're serving that community through innovative research and the the changing uh the way farmers can best uh produce the uh the goods uh you know and and and foods that the country needs. So, you know, I could go on and on on this, but that partnership is critical, and we've got to keep telling our story and making a case for uh the those federal dollars to keep uh coming to the to our research universities.

David Washburn:

Yeah, we we have um we have a lot of uh advocacy programs and and have worked hard over the years to tell the story. Do you do you think we're having any luck?

Kevin Guskiewicz:

I think we are. Again, it's about storytelling and working hard uh to uh make sure the public and policymakers uh understand the importance of that research. Uh uh we you know our uh programs are, you know, one of those is the Spartan Advocate program where alumni and supporters lend their voices to help ensure uh continued federal investment in MSU's research. Uh we launched a new website this year called Research for You, which highlights how um our research improves lives across Michigan in uh you know a number of different different areas uh from uh maternal mental health, uh chronic pain, uh agriculture, as I've already mentioned. So uh but we've got to keep telling the story. Um MSU Today, weekly emails that go out uh and and points uh the public toward that Research for You website and highlights our uh world-class researchers in this space.

David Washburn:

Yeah, and I think the other the other pieces that we've seen come out recently are reports on just the overall impact of of the university systems in the state uh in terms of uh you know their their general impact on the economy. And I know there was a Michigan Association of State Universities uh recently came out with something uh that we were celebrating last week or two weeks ago.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

We bar about two weeks ago. I uh was over in Lansing for a press conference, uh sitting alongside other uh university uh presidents here in the state of Michigan. Uh you know, we are part of uh we are one of the four R1 institutions, and so our group, which used to be called the Research Corridor, uh we sort of have uh we reframed that work and the name. It's uh it's called RU4M, uh Research Universities for Michigan. And the the net new economic activity that takes place uh annually is about $35 billion. It's generated through research, healthcare operations, and alumni activity that bring uh federal industry and uh out-of-state dollars uh to the state of Michigan as a result of work uh conducted by uh these four research universities here. And uh about $3.5 billion in academic research, largely from federal and industry sources outside of Michigan, uh generating about $950 million in additional in-state economic activity on an annual basis. So we're proud of that. But again, we've got to keep telling that story uh to our local legislators as well as our congressional leaders.

David Washburn:

Well, and there was also um some great footage and and photos that I saw. You you spent a lot of time with Mayor Pete down at the auto show. You got to do a fireside chat and talk about all the work happening in in mobility.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

We're proud of the of the work that we do here at Michigan State in in mobility. And as I've talked about mobility, this is about uh not just the automobile industry, but how we move people and things across land, air, and water. And uh, you know, it's uh incredible. And it's a lot of that work takes place, takes place in our engineering uh college, uh, but also uh you know, our packaging program, number one in the country. And we think about how we ship things and uh uh that feeds into the mobility uh space, which I hadn't even thought about. Uh but uh but yeah, that was fun uh uh on stage, a fireside chat with uh uh Pete Buttigieg, uh you know, former Secretary of Transportation, but also known as Mayor Pete, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. But we talked a lot about attracting talent to help grow our economy, uh the government's role in helping to generate new knowledge, which uh, you know, clearly that's what we're we're we're doing here, and and how public policy can best support innovation and again maintain our competitiveness as a nation.

David Washburn:

Did you pick out a new car while you were down there uh walking the trade?

Kevin Guskiewicz:

I tell you what, it was my first auto show. And I've never thought I was much of a car person, but I walked out of there uh after a full day and I said, you know, this is pretty cool. When's the next one? I'm gonna I'm gonna come. Yeah. But uh yeah, there were plenty to choose from. Uh we got to ride in uh in in some of the newer models and uh plenty of uh Spartan green uh vehicles that uh so if I were gonna drive one out of there, it would have been green. That'd be great. Maybe with a little bit of white trim.

David Washburn:

Yeah. Another thing I wanted to cover is is you sp you spent a little d time in Detroit, I believe, yesterday, and uh we were with um Henry Ford Health and Bob Riney, and uh I think it was part of the uh Detroit Policy Conference. Curious if you could articulate any of the highlights from that discussion.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

I did, and I and I had an opportunity to talk about the MSU Research Foundation, the important work that uh that your that your team uh really does here in and again trying to help drive the economy of the state. But you know, we have a great opportunity with the Henry Ford Health + MSU Health Sciences partnership uh as we do over on the western side of the state with Corwell and and along the medical mile. But I think we wanna I talked a lot about how we're gonna innovate, uh, what is gonna look different in five years from now. Well, we've got that new research building going up uh over uh on the Henry Ford campus. Uh uh it will sort of be another version of the medical mile over in Grand Rapids, and uh it's gonna be some really novel work being uh conducted out of that new facility. It uh we're about a year away from it opening, probably maybe 15 months. Uh it's gonna house 80 principal investigators in there uh in their team, so probably about 500 uh researchers overall. Uh one of the floors is gonna be dedicated to neurofibromatosis, which is uh uh what the Gilbert Family Foundation is so passionate about, uh having lost their son Nick Gilbert, uh, who was a was a proud Spartan alum, but sadly lost Nick to that rare disease uh maybe four years ago. And so um they're committed to this. So that's just one example of the important work that'll be done there. But a lot of work in neuroscience, uh uh women's health, uh cancer, uh, but it's gonna be a game changer for MSU, but also for uh Detroit. And I know that the the MSU Research Foundation will play an important role there because there will be some incubator space in there, and uh as as we think about uh uh spinning out new companies and and uh developing a lot of patents around that important work, which I know you and Jeff are passionate about.

David Washburn:

Well, and I think there's quite a few projects already going on down there, if I'm not mistaken, Jeff.

Jeff Wesley:

Yeah, to all the president's things he spoke to today. We're just excited about uh trying to be catalytic to the great efforts and the vision that he has and the refresh of the strategic plan here at MSU. From working on the medical mile in Grand Rapids with Corwell that we're partnering with on several initiatives, including our PitchMI competition, which they're co-investing in, to the work we're doing here on campus in East Lansing to the Henry Ford Partnership with our hub firmly in place, working uh with uh Henry Ford Innovations and the exciting new fund that we're launching right now. Um, just trying to move the initiatives that uh we're so proud of here at MSU and trying to have an impact so that this we can make this vision a reality.

David Washburn:

Yeah. It's so cool. I love the um uh the number of pilot programs we've we've got underway. So a startup in the sort of life sciences space can now leverage these relationships and um and and go in and talk to a specialist in a in a particular area and and get immediate sort of market feedback on on these ideas. And um it's just a just a great partnership.

Jeff Wesley:

Yeah, the partnership, I think it's uh five years old now. Um and I think the relationship of our teams and the power between MSU and Henry Ford, it just sets up for a lot of opportunities. If we can move health outcomes, if we can bring new talent and help with the president's talent initiatives, if we can move research and commercialization down the path with our efforts, all those things are going to lead to great outcomes. And we're just proud to be part of it. We're we're we're excited about the coming year and and seeing what we can do.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

And I talked a little bit about that yesterday at the policy conference, and it's about uh be being a talent magnet. And uh I think what we're building out there in Detroit uh will in fact do that. The city is it's incredible to see how it's come back. Uh and uh Michigan State you know wants to be a part of that. I think it's gonna be really important that we uh you know start highlighting the what's gonna happen in that new research building there, uh, even though we're probably 15 months out from uh opening the doors, but but uh it will attract talent and will activate additional talent as a result of that and uh uh to to uh again bring new businesses, I think, into the region. And I think we can, you know, to Jeff's point about uh the work that's happening there, but also linking it to what's happening in Grand Rapids, we will be that bridge here in East Lansing as the anchor institution across the state uh bringing all these great things together.

Jeff Wesley:

Yeah. We talked about messaging earlier too, and for the audience out there, to me it's just incredible the impact MSU has around the state. And it is a story that we have to talk about more. People just there's so many cool things that are happening. Sometimes there's just so much that I think it's hard to connect those dots. But even in this conversation in southeastern Michigan, we're in the middle of uh mobility at New lab where we have a presence there with MSU. We have the Henry Ford Partnership going on. We have Apple Academy that we work with down there. Um similarly in Grand Rapids and northern Michigan, so many great activities that uh I think it's proud to work uh with MSU and do the things we do, and just great to see what's being done.

David Washburn:

Yeah, and and and and I think back here in East Lansing uh you can point to a number of other partnerships. We have uh McLaren Greater Lansing on uh on the southwest corner of the campus and our partnership with Fraunhofer, for example.

Jeff Wesley:

And a shout out to MSU FCU. We're launching our Conqueror FinTech Accelerator here on Monday with them. So another great partner.

David Washburn:

Well, I think Kevin, it speaks to you know a mindset that you brought and and conveyed in the last two years around um uh partnering in general. And I think that's something that is part of your DNA, is is um uh I always hear you talk about one team and and about doing things you know together. And um and I I I think it's the right the right approach.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

Um, I appreciate it, Dave. And I I think that's where innovation uh begins. I think is whenever you bring uh different mindsets to the table to solve a problem, uh you can't work in silos. And uh I've always surrounded myself with good people that uh think differently than I do, have seen things through a different lens than I have, perhaps. And so uh I'm I'm excited about uh the one-team approach, and we're you know looking at some new opportunities uh around uh one team and one health uh uh and uh we'll be making some uh sort of decisions and an announcement around that probably within the next month or so.

David Washburn:

Well, and and we got it, and we can't not discuss the Green and White Council when we talk about partnerships and uh getting people around the table with different opinions and different coming from different perspectives. Jeff and I have been following this for probably a year. Uh is it a year old?

Kevin Guskiewicz:

Coming up on it.

David Washburn:

Yeah. Um I mean, what a great group and uh and some news that the the group sort of released in the last uh week or so.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

Yeah. So uh so this council uh was you know, the idea was conceived about this time um last year, and we l officially launched uh in mid-April uh of 2025. And uh we really want Spartans to continue to set the standard for propelling our state's economy forward, and that's why I called on members of the Green and White Council. We appointed a uh a an 18-member um committee bringing together uh business leaders, civic leaders from across the state to help us better understand what the workforce needs are uh of today and tomorrow that maybe uh didn't exist even five years ago, ten years ago. And uh they've done an incredible job of helping us to identify what some of those uh needs are so that we can bring those ideas back to our faculty, uh have them uh work alongside us to think about how you build that into the curriculum, uh more work-based learning or uh internship co-op opportunities, but also a lot around uh uh artificial intelligence and uh thinking about how we can build that into the curriculum. We're hearing from industry leaders that their uh current workforce needs to be retooled in that space, and I want Michigan State to be playing a role in that. Uh, but it's also all about as we launch new graduates uh into these industries, they want to be ready. So uh we're gonna launch uh we we announced last week uh our AI uh Ready Spartans initiative, uh which will uh create some coursework around uh you know prepping our graduates for artificial intelligence, and uh there's all sorts of opportunities that can be developed around AI certificates.

David Washburn:

It'll be I want to take some of those classes myself.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

You and me both. Um and uh and we'll have a career connected Spartans initiative that's gonna uh expand access to career exploration uh and real world world experiences around work-based learning internships, connecting our current students to our alums who are out there changing the world. Uh and then the third initiative is called Spartan Catalyst, and this is sort of accelerating some of the important work that we do, collaboration between uh some of our work in the packaging program, our supply chain logistics program, but also leveraging the uh uh innovation ecosystem that that you have created here, uh including the MSU Innovation Center, Spartan Innovations, Red Cedar Ventures, and uh the MSU Research Foundation, so that our faculty can become better um equipped and aware of of those opportunities, uh, which uh being a faculty member of 30 years, you we didn't learn that. So we need your help to uh create that entrepreneurial mindset for for faculty. And so those three initiatives I think are going to be really important as we move forward.

David Washburn:

Well, we're excited to watch them play out. And um I know we have uh we've we've reached out to Matt and Sanjay to see if we can get them in this room to to dive deep into this as well. Jeff, did you want to do that?

Jeff Wesley:

Yeah, it's been a pleasure to work with Matt and Sanjay. They're just great partners. The impact of what you've done there, and just one that's connected to some of those CEOs and corporates. I've heard such positive feedback about this initiative. Um I just give you kudos for this. I think you're right in the right spot at the right time to help us all on next steps.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

I appreciate it. I also would it'd be remiss if I didn't uh acknowledge and and thank uh Matt Elliott, uh former uh CEO of uh Bank of America from Michigan and uh and and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our uh you know former Dean of the Broad College. Uh but I couldn't have asked uh uh two better people to to co-lead this effort. Uh Sanjay bringing his experience expertise from the classroom setting here on campus, and then Matt from the banking world. And you know, they've we quickly identified what these six uh sectors should be in banking and finance, one of them healthcare, another, agriculture. Um uh you know, or just the three of them mobility, as we've already talked about, but uh the the landscape's changing dramatically, and these business leaders are are helping us to identify uh what's needed and and how Michigan State can lead uh for the future.

David Washburn:

Yeah. Well, one last topic. You've hired a new VP for research and innovation um and um and the announcement went out um I don't know, a week or so ago. Um everything I say is a week or so ago, and it just sort of it it what it demonstrates is is your pace uh of of getting stuff.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

I've been told I'm a little impatient, Dave.

David Washburn:

So uh your pace of getting stuff done. So you set these goals and then you get stuff done and and um and we love that. But um what can you tell us about uh the new VPRI?

Kevin Guskiewicz:

Sure. Uh we're really excited. Uh to welcome uh Shashank Priya uh to uh to campus. He'll start February 16th, uh coming up fast. Uh was selected as our new vice president for research and innovation uh following a national search uh and uh the pending retirement of Doug Gage, who, by the way, has just done an incredible job, as you well know, and has sat on the board uh of the Foundation. But he's uh uh uh uh Shashank is a distinguished uh researcher and uh discovery enterprise leader with uh demonstrated ability to expand research capacity and strategic impact. I think you're gonna really enjoy uh working alongside him. He's very passionate about interdisciplinary research. That's one of the things that stood out uh for me. Uh as I mentioned earlier, we can't work in silos. And so uh he's gonna be a great partner uh for the university, for the MSU Research Foundation. Uh but uh again joining us from uh the University of Minnesota, where he held us a very similar role for the the past three or four years.

David Washburn:

We're excited as well to uh to spend time with with him and uh collaborate and and figure out how we can continue to support um any new initiatives that he has. Uh so we're we're really excited to to have him uh join up. Well I want to say thank you and and maybe one last question um sort of what gives you optimism about where we are in this sort of state of uh the Michigan ecosystem? Um there's so many great things going on. I know there's a lot of work to do, uh, but what what really excites you?

Kevin Guskiewicz:

You know, Dave, what I would say is um I talk often about Michigan State being a leading global public research university. And so if you break that all down, leading, we are in fact leading in so many ways. And uh but this is a humble place though, and uh we tend not to toot our horn very often, and uh that's one of the things that I'm working to do. It's it's good to be humble, but we also have to uh toot our horn when we when our faculty, staff, students are doing great things. Global, uh, you know, breaking it down again. Uh you know, we are a proudly global institution. A lot of our work uh here touches down across the globe and and uh parts of the world that needs us and is relying on us. That's what John Hannah uh as uh president back in 1941 to 1969, I believe. There's a long run. Yeah. Um but uh so that's important. Uh uh leading global public, the public good of what we do. So much of that we have to emphasize more and more. It's uh we are the state of Michigan, uh our citizens, uh taxpayers are the the biggest donor to Michigan State, and we have uh there's gotta be a good ROI on that. So everything we do, whether it's teaching, research, uh service, needs to serve the public and and for the public good. And then the research part. Obviously, uh uh we've been talking a lot about that today, but I think when you put that all together, uh I think it creates a lot of optimism and opportunity ahead. So we will be that leading global public research university that that I want uh all that work here, uh uh learn here, play here, uh feel good about, but also our alumni base. I want to always be proud to be a Spartan.

David Washburn:

Our guest today has been uh Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz. He's the 22nd president of Michigan State, and he's also a member of the board of directors of the MSU Research Foundation. So thank you for your service to us and our organization.

Kevin Guskiewicz:

Thank you.

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