When Small is Big.(financing for micro-electromechanical systems research at University of South...

Federal funding for cutting-edge research puts USF's Bayboro campus on the map.

When Peter Betzer joined the University of South Florida's department of marine science in 1971, it was a fledgling program with 10 professors and 45 grad students. Today, he chairs a dynamic department and academic hub at the St. Petersburg/Bayboro campus with more than double the number of faculty and students.

Now, it is also in the high-tech limelight, having secured $6.5 million in federal funding for research and development of micro-electromechanical systems or MEMS, which