In an extraordinary demonstration of support, the anonymous donor who pledged $130 million to the Institute in December 2000 now has replaced the earlier gift with one almost triple in size, and given Rensselaer complete discretion in its use. The gift will galvanize the Institute's plan to more than double its research activity and its graduate enrollment in the next five years by creating new programs in biotechnology and information technology as well as to undertake a number of additional strategic initiatives. "A gift of this magnitude, offered to the university fully unrestricted, is unprecedented," said Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson. "The remarkable generosity of this donor will enable Rensselaer to move boldly into new arenas that are vital for society. "Biotechnology and information technology already have exerted a transformational impact on society," said President Jackson. "The even more dramatic advances that lie ahead will revolutionize the practice of medicine, extend the human life span, and shrink our world through ubiquitous, tetherless communications. This extraordinary gift will enable Rensselaer to play a leading role in enabling society to reap the still unimagined benefits of these exciting technologies." In making the new gift, the anonymous donor replaced the earlier commitment with a new, unrestricted pledge of $360 million. The earlier gift was directed toward the construction of two major facilities: The Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Electronic Media and Performing Arts Center. The new gift is unrestricted. "In extending this new gift, our donor expressed the desire to increase support to Rensselaer, and to make an even bolder gesture in support of the Rensselaer Plan and its ambitious goals to advance the position of the Institute as a world-class technological research university," President Jackson said. "With this new gift, the donor carries out an intention to provide sustained support and make it available to an unlimited array of initiatives. On behalf of Rensselaer, I express my gratitude for this donor's singular, heartfelt, and visionary commitment." The Rensselaer Plan, the strategic plan for the Institute, was launched by President Jackson shortly after her inauguration in the fall of 1999, and approved by the trustees just nine months later, in May 2000. As its single most dramatic goal, the Rensselaer Plan calls for building research programs of world-class standing in selected areas of promise in biotechnology and information technology. The comprehensive research goal calls for more than doubling research activity over a five-year span, doubling the size of the graduate school, and developing robust programs in additional research arenas. In addition to research initiatives, the priorities for the first year of the plan also include programs to enhance the student experience and campus life, and to grow and enhance faculty. Rensselaer has chosen four focal areas in which to build new programs in biotechnology: functional tissue engineering, integrative systems biology, biocomputation and bioinformatics, and biotcatalysis and metabolic engineering. In one of these areas, functional tissue engineering, the research effort encompasses the integrated study of the full range of fundamental scientific principles that govern living tissue—for the purpose of understanding how to guide the development of natural and artificial tissues that would be applied for a variety of therapeutic and clinical purposes. On the application level, this work would enable the synthesis of artificial or natural materials that could augment or substitute for damaged skin, organs, joints or other poorly functioning tissue in living organisms. SUCCESS
Ranks Lally Sixth Best Entrepreneurial Business School SUCCESS magazine has ranked Rensselaer sixth on its annual list of the 50 "Best Entrepreneurial Business Schools" in the United States. Schools in the survey were ranked on caliber of students, faculty, curriculum, community outreach, innovative programs, follow-up of graduates, and reputation among fellow schools. "To make the list of Best Entrepreneurial Business Schools shows superior innovation and accomplishments," said SUCCESS publisher Victoria Conte. The rankings appear in the February/March edition of SUCCESS. Rensselaer's Lally School of Management and Technology distinguished itself from more than 250 entrepreneurship programs in the country. The Lally School and its Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship have long been a hotbed for budding entrepreneurs.
"It is wonderful to receive this recognition," said Joseph Ecker, dean of the Lally School. "Entrepreneurship has always been a hallmark of the Lally School, but it's nice to find ourselves named a top 10 school." In the SUCCESS rankings, Babson College was ranked first, followed by UCLA, University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University, and the University of St. Thomas (Minn.). Recently, the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurial Leadership selected the Severino Center to lead a nationwide pilot program called Technology Enhanced Entrepreneurship Education (TE3). In May, more than 30 professors from around the country will gather at Rensselaer for a three-day clinic designed to introduce entrepreneurship faculty to the state of the art in technology-enhanced learning. SUCCESS magazine's readership is more than 1 million strong and the magazine is regarded as the oldest business publication in the country. You can find the full rankings on the Web on March 15 at: www.successmagazine.com/
Baron
Named to Wellington Chair
"Robert has had a profound positive effect on the lives of thousands of students through his teaching and textbooks," said Joseph Ecker (left), dean of the Lally School. "It is an honor to have him as part of our faculty and now to recognize his accomplishments with this endowed chair."
Baron is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and American Psychological Society. He is the president of Innovative Environmental Products Inc., a company that designs and promotes equipment for improving indoor environments. He holds three U.S. patents, has written or co-written 42 books, 32 chapters, and more than 100 articles. He has also published several textbooks in the area of psychology and organizational behavior. Baron holds a master's and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Iowa, and a bachelor's degree from the City University of New York. Prior to joining the Rensselaer faculty in 1987, he held faculty positions at Purdue, the University of Texas, University of Minnesota, Oxford University, and Princeton. From 1979 to 1981 he served as a program director of the National Science Foundation. Rensselaer
LL&C Faculty Capture Two Gould Awards Two professors in the Department of Language, Literature, and Communication have received the prestigious 2001 Jay R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching Technical Communication.
The Society for Technical Communications (STC) has honored Robert Krull, director of the master's programs in communication and professor of communication, and Roger Grice, clinical assistant professor of communication. The STC gives as many as three such awards each year, and it is unusual for more than one to go to faculty at the same university. Krull and Grice teach in their department's distance education program, where Grice is the director. Krull was honored for "innovative teaching and mentoring," and Grice for "serving as an enthusiastic role model to those he has taught." Last year, Grice received Rensselaer's Darrin Counseling Award. The Gould award, presented by STC, is named for Jay Reid Gould, who started the technical writing program at Rensselaer. He taught at Rensselaer for 50 years, retiring in 1972. Gould died in 1999. Women's
Basketball Earns Invite
A record-breaking season earned the Rensselaer women's basketball team an invitation to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the team's 26-year history. The Red Hawks met Mount Saint Mary in the first-round tournament last week in the Robison Gymnasium, eventually falling to the Blue Kings 66-54. Rensselaer was led in scoring by junior guard Holly Neiweem, who had 13 points, and Melissa Coppola's 12 points. Coppola, who had 10 points in the first half, also chipped in with 11 rebounds. Rensselaer, 23-4, earned an automatic berth to the tournament by winning the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA) Tournament. With their three post-season victories, the Red Hawks won 12 straight games and eclipsed the school record for wins in a single season. The previous record was 21-4 in 1997-98. Conference
Honors Besides Rybczyk and Kaczynski, juniors Melissa Coppola and Holly Neiweem were chosen to the All-UCAA Second Team while senior Kristen Campbell was a women's honorable mention selection Spring
Break Offers the Chance to Help the Poor Rensselaer students Ed Behn, Orion Craigue, and Richard Engle are participating in a program called the Urban Challenge, sponsored by the Romero Center, an urban retreat center in Camden, New Jersey. The center is administered by the parish of St. Joseph's Pro-Cathedral in Camden. The students will clean up old homes, assist in building new homes, and visit nursery schools. "We also learn about what it is like to have to live on low income for a week," says Engle, who also participated in the program last year. Camden, a city of 87,000 people, has grim statistics: 40 percent of Camden adults lack a high school diploma. The city's unemployment rate is 16.2 percent, four times higher than the national average. The Newman Fellowship student club is sponsoring the trip. Front
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Robert
Baron (pictured right), professor of management in the Lally
School, has been named the Dean R. Wellington '83 Professor
of Management. This endowed chair was created by Wellington
to recognize a faculty member for teaching and research. 