Shown above are Ralph Hutcheson (left), Scientific Materials president, and Randy Equall, director of research technology. Photo by Stephen Hunts. Scientific Materials by Evelyn Boswell Kids don't knock on the door of Scientific Materials, Corp. and ask to buy lasers for laser tag. Scientific Materials serves a different kind of client, and its customers generally live at least a day away from Bozeman by Federal Express. But the high-tech business does make the crystals that produce lasers. It also attracts its share of students. Roughly half of the company's workforce are graduates of Montana State University. Some of them started out as interns when they were college students. Others worked out of state after graduation and then returned. Even company founder Ralph Hutcheson, '54 ME, '03 HonDoc, lived 16 years in the Midwest and 20 years in California before founding Scientific Materials in 1989. "Bozeman offers a very high quality of life. It's a beautiful place to live. It's a good place to raise a family. It has a lot to offer," said Randy Equall, '95 PhD, Scientific Materials' director of technology. "And you don't have to spend 30 to 40 minutes commuting," Hutcheson added. Equall became associated with Scientific Materials when he was a graduate student at MSU. He is now heir apparent to 71-year-old Hutcheson who grew the world's first crystal ever used for lasers. Scientific Materials employs eight other MSU graduates, too. Two have doctorates and six have bachelor degrees. "When you graduate, that's what you are supposed to do," Hutcheson said about forming a business that benefits his alma mater and its graduates. "It doesn't happen that way very often." Scientific Materials is intertwined with MSU on a number of levels, Hutcheson continued. Not only does it employ former graduates, but it hires students as interns. It collaborates with MSU faculty on research and development and has projects that it subcontracts to MSU. The largest collaboration now is over the S2-Chip which will develop a high-band width optical signaling process for radar. Scientific Materials signed a $1.5 million contract with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command to continue working on this technology. The results of all this are, Hutcheson said, graduates who are better prepared, and a company that benefits from a trained workforce and university research dollars. The relationship has also sped up the time it takes to go from an idea to a marketable product. "The whole interaction with the university has very, very positive results," Hutcheson commented. Lee Spangler, director of the Optical Technical Center at MSU, said such collaborations were unusual when MSU and Scientific Materials started working together. "Ralph was extremely patient in working with the university and working through intellectual property issues," Spangler said. "...There were a lot of people who would have given up, but he was convinced it was important to the state, his company and the university." As a result of the relationship, students now work in laboratories at both locations, Spangler said. It gives them unique experiences and "absolutely made the university bigger." Hutcheson has benefitted Montana, as well by his activities that promote economic development on a state level. Scientific Materials is located less than two miles from MSU in a building at the end of Ice Pond Road. It may look like a warehouse, but it contains highly sophisticated equipment for growing crystals in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Its clients can use the crystals to produce specific types of lasers for industrial, scientific, medical and military systems. Small crystals, for instance, are used predominantly for science and scientific studies. Amber-colored crystals produce the lasers used in dental work. Green crystals create the lasers used for orthoscopic surgery. A less obvious product may be the creation of skilled workers. "We are developing a workforce and need for it at the same time," Spangler noted. "Ultimately what we want is to create students that aren't just competitive for high-tech jobs, but entrepreneurial enough that they help generate new businesses."