“For the first time in generations, the nation’s children could face poorer prospects than their parents and grandparents did. We owe our current prosperity, security, and good health to the investment of past generations, and we are obliged to renew those commitments in education, research and innovation policies...”—Rising Above the Gathering Storm, National Academies Press, 2006.

This assessment of our nation can not be any truer than in the state of West Virginia. For example, of the first 500 commodity chemicals produced, 286 were first discovered and brought to commercial scale production in the Kanawha Valley, which earned hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide. The Union Carbide Corporation alone created over 30,000 patents worth over $18 billion dollars at the Union Carbide Technology Center, now called the South Charleston Technology Park.

With this heritage behind us, the Mid-Atlantic Technology Research and Innovation Center (MATRIC) is making a down payment on the future prosperity of the children of West Virginia through mentoring and research and innovation from their laboratory facilities at Dow Chemical's South Charleston Technology Park.

MATRIC has a dual mission that focuses both on business return to assure long-term economic viability and the social concerns of the Mountain State and the nation. These concerns are like the double lens of a pair of binoculars that bring distant objects into clear and precise focus through what we do and how we do it.

In the first three years of MATRIC’s operation, over 50 projects have been completed for 29 different federal and state agencies, commercial companies and private foundations. From 2005 to 2006, MATRIC’s contract revenue increased five fold and in 2007 is projected to double that impressive performance metric. Furthermore, commercialization of developed intellectual property has allowed MATRIC to create four new companies that will manufacture new polymers, natural gas purification systems, biodiesel fuels, ethanol and other biomass products.

MATRIC’s impact on the future of West Virginia’s economy is three-fold:

• The long-term growth of the core MATRIC research organization which will in itself employ many highly-paid scientists and engineers
• The active partnering with local industry to revitalize their products and services through effective and efficient research and development, which will create new jobs in growing private sector companies
• The goal of creating three to five new companies each year that are associated with MATRIC- developed technologies in order to provide these new products and services to the marketplace

Throughout West Virginia, our children will have new opportunities to stay in the state and prosper intellectually, professionally and financially.
Our focus on the social responsibility is displayed in three areas:

1. Recruiting and hiring highly skilled minority scientists, engineers and other professionals
2. Promoting volunteerism in the many civic and social concern organizations across our state and nation
3. Selection of the most important topics of social concern in our state and region to apply our technical staff and resources

Doing it Right
MATRIC is just as committed to doing research and development in the right way as we are to developing the right science and technology. The MATRIC values are the articulation of our approach.

1. We cherish fast-paced market-oriented innovation
2. We are the best-in-class innovators because we value intense customer focus
3. People are our most treasured asset
4. We conduct all our business with the highest standards of ethics
5. We value diversity of thought, experiences, disciplines, and cultures
6. MATRIC is a fun and exciting place to work

MATRIC is committed to our dual mission, which focuses both on the financial performance of the corporation as well as the social concerns of West Virginia and the United States. As we continue to grow, we will be even more effective in meeting these important obligations to the next generation of citizens.

web: http://www.matricresearch.com