As someone who enjoys travel and exploration, I immediately felt right at home when I joined the Institute of Technology as director of external relations earlier this year. Discovery is a way of life here, making the college a very exciting place to be.
Since March, I have been meeting with department heads and Dean Crouch to gain a better understanding of research and education within the college. I’ve learned that our students are receiving a first-rate education, and that faculty and students are conducting research—often interdisciplinary—that will help solve some of the most pressing problems facing our world today, including the crises in energy and health care.
Now that the University has embarked on a journey to become one of the top three public research universities, the Institute of Technology’s role is more critical than ever, especially in today’s competitive, high-tech world. By strengthening the college, we’ll be in an even better position to help the University provide the outstanding education, public service, and research our citizens deserve.
Achieving our vision will require talented people, hard work, and resources. Institute of Technology department heads have told me consistently that they need more graduate student fellowships and undergraduate scholarships to recruit top students, more endowed chairs and professorships to attract and retain gifted faculty, and state-of-the-art research facilities that serve as “discovery incubators.”
The impact of such investments in our faculty, students, and facilities extends well beyond campus borders. During a recent visit to Arizona, I met some remarkable alumni who have used their education and research to make a positive difference in the world.
After outstanding contributions to the medical-device and health care industries, Robert K. Anderson (EE ’63) and Art Schwalm (EE ’62) are helping some of today’s students to obtain an education. Anderson, founder and CEO of Valleylab, Inc., has been a major benefactor of Institute of Technology scholarships. Schwalm, retired founder and head of Cardiac Pacemakers Inc., has set up a bequest to establish scholarships in the departments of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering.
Roger Haxby (ME ’58) had a long career with Ingersoll-Rand before founding Waukesh Alaska Corp., an energy-production company. He made a major gift to help fund the new mechanical engineering facilities.
Personal experience prompted Bob Sundahl to make a significant gift that will endow a named fellowship in materials science. Sundahl (MetE ’58, M.S. ’64, Ph.D. ’66), who as a young student struggled to make ends meet, is grateful for the education that launched his distinguished career with information technology giants Bell Labs, Allied Signal, and Intel. Sundahl is also helping to lead a $20 million campaign to raise support for endowed fellowships for chemical engineering and materials science graduate students.
The Institute of Technology is a wellspring of talent and creative ideas that enter the world and over the course of time make significant contributions to our quality of life. Today’s challenges demand the best from all of us, and the University has crafted a plan to address those problems through world-class education and pioneering research.
But we cannot achieve this vision without you. Contributions of time, talent, and financial support from the college’s 50,000 alumni are essential to our success. I ask each of you to join the Institute of Technology in this ambitious venture. Together we can accomplish great things.
The University of Minnesota has received a gift of $500,000 from Medtronic, Inc. and the Medtronic Foundation for the creation of the Medtronic Fellows in Biomedical Engineering Fund. The fund will help support new full-time biomedical engineering graduate students during their first semester.
The contribution from Medtronic, which will be spread over five years, is the second major gift in a campaign to support the entire class of first-year biomedical engineering graduate students each fall. About a third of the contribution will be used immediately for graduate fellowships, while the remainder will be placed in an endowment to earn interest and fund fellowships over time.
The goal over five years is to raise at least $2 million for biomedical engineering fellowships. The payout on the endowed funds will be matched by the University of Minnesota to generate an estimated $200,000 per year to support 20 graduate students during their first semester. Student support is currently the University’s top fund-raising priority. This gift is part of the University’s Promise of Tomorrow scholarship and fellowship drive.
“The University has a long-standing partnership with Medtronic, and we’re delighted with their continuing support of our students and research,” said Bob Tranquillo, head of the biomedical engineering department. “Funding for fellowships is critical to attracting top graduate students to the University of Minnesota who can pursue research frontiers in biomedical engineering.”
“Medtronic is very pleased to offer support to biomedical engineering graduate students at the University of Minnesota,” said Becky Bergman, Medtronic’s vice president of corporate science and technology. “It is important to Medtronic and to Minnesota’s medical device and emerging biosciences industry that we attract and train world-class biomedical engineers to help continue the state’s legacy of medical technology innovation.”
Medtronic has ties to the University of Minnesota that date back to the 1950s. The company’s founder, Earl Bakken, a 1948 electrical engineering graduate, worked with University researchers to develop and test the first wearable, battery-operated cardiac pacemaker. Medtronic employs many of the University’s biomedical engineering graduates.
