Duluth High Tech Task Force and Duluth Future Task Force as endorsees of the Institute. The simple notation of first-year funding of $1,650,000 and second-year funding of $2,250,000 for the Natural Resources Research Institute in Chapter 258, page 1051 of the LAWS of MINNESOTA for 1983, marks the establishment of the Institute. Starting to operate UMD Economics Professor Dr. Jerrold Peterson was named acting coordinator of the Institute and he began to hire temporary employees to begin the work of the Institute. An Advisory Board was established, with UMD Dean of the College of Science and Engineering George (Rip) Rapp as chair. In August 1983, UMD Provost Robert Heller envisioned NRRI doing between $5 and $10 million per year in research and employing up to 150 staff members in five years. Dr. Michael Lalich, with a background in industrial research and development, was the first permanent director of the Institute, starting on the job in April of 1984. He soon began the task of conducting national searches for Associate Directors for each of the four divisions. Successful candidates included: Dr. Thys Johnson, a native of Duluth and Department Head of Mining at the Colorado School of Mines; Dr. Robert Naiman, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Director of a Research Station in Quebec; Dr. Eugene Shull, Associate Director of the Pennsylvania State University Combustion Laboratory; and Dr. Roy Adams, a senior research scientist at the Michigan Technological University Institute of Wood Research. John Sandy, head of the P-M-A Library at the University of Texas at Austin, was hired in November 1984 to develop a research library for the Institute. Because of Minnesota's economic dependence on its natural resources, NRRI adopted the mission to foster the economic development of Minnesota’s natural resources in an environmentally sensitive manner to promote private sector employment. The institute's goals are: Assisting entrepreneurs and businesses with near-term economic development. Conducting applied research to develop products, processes, and services that will be of future benefit to Minnesota's industries and resource managers. Improving the knowledge base of Minnesota's natural resources to assist resource managers to make sound economic and environmental decisions. While the NRRI is not a teaching institution, it fulfills its academic goals with research conducted by faculty and students at the Institute and several NRRI employees hold faculty or adjunct faculty positions. NRRI assists students by providing scholarships and research assistantships. Moreover, the