About The Sasaki Institute

Background Information

The Sasaki Institute is named in recognition of the pioneering work by Professor Yoshi K. Sasaki as one of the founding faculty of the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Sasaki also has been instrumental in recent years for developing strong relationships with the emerging private meteorological sector.

Mission Statement

This statement was crafted carefully to reflect the values of the new Institute and its broad mission. Originally, the mission focused exclusively on weather, and indeed meteorology is an important component. However, the role of the SI has expanded considerably at the request of the OU Administration and now is viewed as the underpinning for identifying, recruiting and connecting multiple types of organizations on the Research Campus (RC).

In that regard, the SI first seeks to be a “statesman” in the science and engineering enterprise both locally and nationally, serving as a neutral crossroads where academia, government, and private industry can interact, debate productively and set and execute bold agendas for the future. Numerous examples abound where this capability is needed, including but not limited to the commercialization of academic intellectual property funded by taxpayer dollars, academic-corporate alliances, and the provision of data to industry using infrastructures available only to academia.

Second, although the SI itself has the capacity to perform R&D, it does not seek to do so as a primary component of its mission. Rather, the SI will develop and in many cases implement transformative approaches – new ways of doing things that challenge the status quo in a positive manner – to advance commerce, education/research (scholarship), and policy. It further seeks to engage diverse constituencies, as described below, so as to empower success in the broader enterprise.

Constituents of the SI include but are not necessarily limited to the following:

• Private industry
• Academia
• State Government
• Federal government (civilian and military)
• NGOs
• Non-profit organizations/institutes
• Professional societies
• Foundations
• Trade groups