Governor Tim Walz visits Hormel Institute Thursday

Gov. Tim Walz visited The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota in Austin Thursday to meet with local leaders and learn of the Institute’s recent progress in groundbreaking biomedical and agricultural research and its expanding education and outreach initiatives.  During a brief address to attendees in the RLLC Auditorium, Governor Walz stated that Minnesota’s future should look a lot like what’s happening in Austin…

Governor Walz went on to talk about possible funding for the Minnesota Bioimaging Center, or MBiC Project at the Institute in a bonding bill from the current legislative session…

A bill has been introduced by State District 23B Representative Patricia Mueller, a Republican from Austin, and District 23 Senator Gene Dornink, a Republican from Brownsdale seeking $20M from this year’s state bonding bill for the MBiC project. Officials with the Institute have noted that the project will expand the facility’s advanced bioimaging capabilities, it will also provide high-demand biomedical workforce training for researchers, and they stated that it would also establish a STEM education laboratory serving students from K-12 up to the graduate level, and their teachers, to create a pipeline of Minnesota-raised, Minnesota-trained researchers and innovators.