Midwest Research Institute
Encyclopedia
MRIGlobal is an independent, not-for-profit
, contract research organization
based in Kansas City, Missouri
.
Founded in 1944 during World War II
as Midwest Research Institute, the organization's initial mission was to find a way to convert the ammonium nitrate military ordnance plants in Galena, Kansas
, Parsons, Kansas
, DeSoto, Kansas and El Dorado, Arkansas
to peaceful uses of creating fertilizer
. Among the nine founders was Kenneth A. Spencer
who would make a fortune from the Jayhawk Plant in Galena. Spencer would be chairman of the Institute from 1954 to 1957 and donated money for the Kenneth A. Spencer Laboratories Building and the Spencer Auditorium at the Institute.
It was located initially in the former Westport, Missouri City Hall at 40th Terrace and Pennsylvania. That building was torn down in 1955. It is currently in a complex on the banks of Brush Creek facing the Nelson Art Gallery adjacent to University of Missouri - Kansas City and the headquarters of Russell Stovers candy.
MRIGlobal performs research in the areas of National Defense
, Health Sciences, Agriculture
& Food Safety
, Engineering
, Environment
, Information Technology
, Energy
, Biological Sciences
, and Analytical chemistry
. The purpose of MRIGlobal is to provide solutions through scientific research, technology
development, and technical services for the benefit of government
, industry, and the public.
On March 1, 2011 it was renamed MRIGlobal.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, contract research organization
Contract research organization
A contract research organization, also called a clinical research organization, is a service organization that provides support to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the form of outsourced pharmaceutical research services...
based in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
.
Founded in 1944 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as Midwest Research Institute, the organization's initial mission was to find a way to convert the ammonium nitrate military ordnance plants in Galena, Kansas
Galena, Kansas
Galena is a city in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,085.-History:The city was named after the lead ore galena found here in 1877. The city was originally platted by the Galena Mining and Smelting Company and was to be known as Cornwall...
, Parsons, Kansas
Parsons, Kansas
Parsons is a city in the northern part of Labette County, located in Southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,500...
, DeSoto, Kansas and El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado , a multi-cultural arts center: South Arkansas Arts Center , an award-winning renovated downtown, and numerous sporting, shopping, and dining opportunities. El Dorado is the population, cultural, and business center of the 7,300 mi² regional area...
to peaceful uses of creating fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
. Among the nine founders was Kenneth A. Spencer
Kenneth A. Spencer
Kenneth Aldred Spencer was a Kansas coal mine owner who transformed a government surplus factory into the world's biggest ammonium nitrate producer...
who would make a fortune from the Jayhawk Plant in Galena. Spencer would be chairman of the Institute from 1954 to 1957 and donated money for the Kenneth A. Spencer Laboratories Building and the Spencer Auditorium at the Institute.
It was located initially in the former Westport, Missouri City Hall at 40th Terrace and Pennsylvania. That building was torn down in 1955. It is currently in a complex on the banks of Brush Creek facing the Nelson Art Gallery adjacent to University of Missouri - Kansas City and the headquarters of Russell Stovers candy.
MRIGlobal performs research in the areas of National Defense
Defense (military)
Defense has several uses in the sphere of military application.Personal defense implies measures taken by individual soldiers in protecting themselves whether by use of protective materials such as armor, or field construction of trenches or a bunker, or by using weapons that prevent the enemy...
, Health Sciences, Agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
& Food Safety
Food safety
Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards....
, Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, Environment
Environment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...
, Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, Energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
, Biological Sciences
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, and Analytical chemistry
Analytical chemistry
Analytical chemistry is the study of the separation, identification, and quantification of the chemical components of natural and artificial materials. Qualitative analysis gives an indication of the identity of the chemical species in the sample and quantitative analysis determines the amount of...
. The purpose of MRIGlobal is to provide solutions through scientific research, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
development, and technical services for the benefit of government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, industry, and the public.
Projects
- Coating process for M&M Candies permitting the coating of 3,300 pounds of chocolate centers every hour (1950s)
- Soluble coffee for J.A. Folger a forerunner of auto drip coffeemakerCoffeemakerCoffeemakers or coffee machines are cooking appliances used to brew coffee without having to boil water in a separate container. While there are many different types of coffeemakers using a number of different brewing principles, in the most common devices, coffee grounds are placed in a paper or...
(1950s) - National Renewable Energy LaboratoryNational Renewable Energy LaboratoryThe National Renewable Energy Laboratory , located in Golden, Colorado, is the United States' primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility; it is funded through...
(managed since its start in 1977 as MRIGlobal is part of the Alliance for Sustainable Energy) (1970s) - Maintaining the National Cancer InstituteNational Cancer InstituteThe National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
Repository (since the 1980s) - Development of a thermoelectric cooling system for flight personnel and astronauts (1990s)
- EthanolEthanolEthanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
conversion process for the entire corn plant (cob, stalk and leaves—not just the kernels) (in conjunction with NREL and DuPontDuPontE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
) (2000s) - Advanced air sampler to detect trace levels of DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
from anthraxAnthraxAnthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...
spores (2000s)
On March 1, 2011 it was renamed MRIGlobal.