History/Timeline

A History of Breakthroughs

ISU Research Park was created in 1987 to provide space and resources to technology-based firms and research organizations. Organized and run by the ISU Research Park Corporation, the Park has welcomed ideas and entrepreneurial ventures of all sizes to its 230-acre development.

In just over two decades, ISU Research Park has seen incredible growth and even more amazing innovation from its tenants. We have connected researchers and businesspersons with the people, technology, lab space and additional resources they needed to reach their goals. Here are just a few things we have helped make possible to date:

• Genome editing in commercial crops
• Creation of a thin, flexible solar panel film that can serve both military and personal purposes
• Development of a vast, virtual Internet used in testing cyber security
• Advanced cancer diagnostics and treatments

The ISU Research Park leverages the wealth of resources available from Iowa State University, a 150-year-old land-grant university. Recognized worldwide for its accomplishments in science and technology, ISU offers our tenants access to thought leadership, world-class equipment, specialized research facilities and much more.

The success of ISU Research Park is due to its fruitful collaboration with Iowa State, a university with a rich history of innovation. ISU innovators have gone on to influence such widely varied and groundbreaking work as:

• More than 300 products based on the peanut, made possible by ISU alum George Washington Carver
• The world's first electronic digital computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer)
• The revolutionary swimsuit that was a part of the record-breaking performances in the 2008 Olympics
• Participation in the international research team supporting the Large Hadron Collider

Interested in being a part of ISU Research Park’s success stories? Contact us to begin making history of your own.