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Friends in Deed
Eyes on the prize, Bayer, UNH forge multi-year alliance
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Business New Haven
10/18/1999
By: Linda Mele
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Four students were honored October 8 as the inaugural recipients of the Bayer/University of New Haven Higher Education Alliance Scholarship.
Formed in March, the alliance is an academic-corporate partnership whose goal is to recognize and support students who will be the science and technology workers of the future.
The six-year partnership will provide scholarships as well as paid internships, operations funding and laboratory equipment through a Bayer Corp. grant to UNH valued at more than $1 million, according to UNH President Lawrence J. DiNardis.
David Ebsworth, Bayer's executive vice president and president of that firm's Pharmaceutical Division-North America, joined DiNardis and keynote speaker Henry Lee, commissioner of the state's Department of Public Safety and a renowned forensic scientist, to present the awards.
Lee had returned early from a trip to China, where he was awarded that country's Medal of Friendship, in order to participate in the program.
"The state of Connecticut has identified science and technology as key to the economic future of the state," Lee said. He added that the state's improved economy has resulted in record employment needs that cannot be met. "This is particularly true in the high-technology and bioscience sectors on which the state is so considerably investing its future," Lee noted.
With Connecticut's economic recovery in its seventh year, Lee said employers in many sectors are experiencing difficulty in filling open positions, and firms in the high-technology and bioscience sectors in particular require advanced degrees and are reporting labor shortages.
"Moreover, the rapid pace of change in technology is driving a high demand for computer-related, analytical and scientific skills across virtually all components of the technology sector," Lee said, pointing to such partnerships as the Bayer-UNH Alliance as one solution to the problem of developing a skilled workforce to meet employer needs.
In addition to honoring the four students, a ceremony was held to rename the UNH admissions building Bayer Hall.
DiNardis explained that it was "in commemoration of the pioneering partnership" between the company and the university and recognized Bayer's "extraordinary support" of programs that will "prepare science and technology graduates for real-world business experiences and workplace advancement."
Ebsworth says the higher-education alliance "is a way to address a major issue of the day: how to increase the supply of highly skilled and superbly educated science and technology scholar-graduates to meet the demand of the fast-growing, economy-driving high technology sector in Connecticut."
As the first scholars honored, West Haveners Anthony Passeri and Brian Zuk, Jason Simeone of Cheshire and Christopher Baris of Rhode Island will each receive $3,200 for two years under the program.
Passeri, a graduate of Platt Regional Vocational Technical School in Milford, and Zuk, a product of West Haven High School, are computer science majors. Baris says he wants to enter the biotechnology field and Simeone, who was graduated from Cheshire High School, says he plans to become a software developer.
Last month Bayer began work on a 125,000-square-foot, $50 million research facility at its West Haven/Orange site which by 2003 is expected to add 200 jobs to the pharmaceutical division's 2,100-person workforce.
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