President Choi's Blog

Sharing the power of MURR with Lt. Gov. Kehoe

Aug. 25, 2023


A photo of Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe (center) with university leaders and MURR faculty and staff.
Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe (center) with university leaders and MURR faculty and staff.

On Wednesday, I accompanied Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe on a tour of the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). MURR Executive Director Matt Sanford led the tour, and we were proud to highlight our work producing medical isotopes for more than 1.6 million cancer and heart disease patients each year.

A photo of Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, MURR Executive Director Matt Sanford and President Choi.
Lt. Gov. Kehoe, MURR Executive Director Matt Sanford and President Choi.

We also discussed the university’s plan to grow MURR’s lifesaving impact. This fall, we’ll celebrate the groundbreaking of MURR West, an addition to the existing facility that adds more lab, production and administrative space. We’ve also made incredible progress on NextGen MURR – a new, state-of-the-art reactor that will expand our capacity to produce medical isotopes that will be used in advanced cancer medicines for decades to come.

I enjoyed sharing our record of safety and excellence with Lt. Gov. Kehoe. Thanks to support from state leaders, we are securing MURR’s place as the world’s most important university research reactor for fighting cancer, while also attracting innovative research, economic investment and jobs to Missouri.

— Mun