The former provost of Columbia University explores the vital role of America's research universities as engines of technological and economic growth--and illuminates the urgent need to protect them

Jonathan R. Cole, currently the John Mitchell Mason Professor at Columbia University, is widely known throughout the United States for his fourteen years (1989-2003) as Columbia's provost, holding the position for the second-longest tenure in the university's 250-year history. He has also served as dean of faculties and vice president for arts and sciences. He lives in New York.