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This year’s speaker for �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ�’s Bowman Breakfast was the embodiment of the symbiotic relationship between the university and the city of �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� that is celebrated at the annual event.

Asad Khan, Ph.D., CEO of �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� Displays Inc., came to �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� as a graduate student in 1993, began his first job at �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� Displays in 1995, and has remained with the company and risen to his top leadership role over the past 30 years. Khan lives in �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ�, is active in the community and is raising his family here.

In his speech, titled “Rooted & Rising: A �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� State Story With Global Roots,” Khan talked of his experience as an immigrant from Pakistan in 1989, when he arrived in Ohio as a student at the College of Wooster.

As an undergraduate, Khan discovered liquid crystal research, which led him to �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� State for his graduate studies. He earned his master’s degree in physics in 1995, and his doctorate in chemical physics in 2003 from �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� State’s Liquid Crystal Institute, now known as the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute.

“I have a very unique perspective growing up outside these borders,” he said. “I am energized all the time when I recognize how much I am appreciated here and by what my diversity brings to the table. It’s really powerful to have that diversity of thought, of leadership, of mindfulness around the community.”

A naturalized citizen, Khan said, there are about 46 million immigrants in the U.S., or 14% of the population.

“The university is an incredible place because so many people, like myself, are coming here from all over the world,” he said. “International students tremendously improve our community.”

The way to make the �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� community stronger is to travel outside the borders of Portage County and to bring back those experiences and an expanded worldview to �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ�, Khan said.

“We will make it stronger if we go outside these borders and bring back those experiences here, which is what I feel makes me inspired about this community and what we’re doing and why we are special,” he said.

The Bowman Breakfast, which began in 1963, is a longstanding tradition that celebrates the strong relationship between the city of �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� and the university. Approximately 220 people attended the event, which included a video tribute to the recently deceased �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� Mayor Jerry Fiala.

�þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� State President Todd Diacon, when introducing Khan, talked of the more than 80-year alliance between the federal government and universities across the country to promote and support research and development. The alliance began during World War II and was bolstered in 1950 with the founding of the National Science Foundation.

Khan, he said, was a representative of that “very powerful, a very impactful, and a very successful” alliance.

“We’re talking about that powerful alliance of federal funding and oversight and university research that has brought us most of the scientific and technological advances that shape our lives today,” Diacon said.

The impact of that effort birthed modern technology such as computers and the internet, and is exemplified in �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ�, Ohio, and at �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� State, and through the university’s work on liquid crystal research and the private companies such as �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� Displays that are the product of that research, he said.

�þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� Displays was founded in 1993 by J. William Doane, Ph.D., former director of �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� State’s Liquid Crystal Institute, and venture capitalist William Manning, to develop cholesteric display technology into commercial applications.

Khan said liquid crystal research has spun off many small companies, and it is incumbent upon current members of the city and university communities to continue to build the community.

“You buy the house and then you mow the grass,” he said, noting how continuous improvement should be the call to action.

“How do we get better? To continue to build the economy and the community so that people like me continue to come to �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ� and stay in �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ�,” he said. “I have had the most amazing 30 years here in �þ���ҹ����ӰԺ��ѹۿ�. I have loved the university to interact with and with the community I feel that it’s a pretty awesome place to be.”

In taking questions from the audience, Khan addressed the issue of artificial intelligence (AI), and called it “a defining moment in our lives.”

He likened it to a hammer, a tool that must be used despite its ability to do harm.

Unlike other technologies that developed more slowly, AI will require us to react and adapt faster, he said: “Technology will not slow down for anyone.”