Development
Remembering and Nurturing MSU Roots
by Pat Grauer
One of the nation’s outstanding
medical educators has remembered his professional roots with a deferred gift to
the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine.
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Ronald J. Markert, PhD
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Ronald J. Markert,
PhD, who began his career in 1973 as a graduate assistant and then
assistant professor at MSUCOM, hasn’t forgotten his early experiences
– even after a quarter-century. His initial work at MSUCOM was in
educational development, course logistics, testing and evaluation.
"At the point where I was
thinking about giving back to higher education," Dr. Markert said,
"remembering MSU just felt like the right thing to do."
His gift of $150,000 was
divided among MSUCOM, the Department of Counseling, Educational
Psychology and Special Education, and MSU’s Essential Edge. |
Dr. Markert, who became an associate
professor in medical education at MSUCOM, has had a distinguished career, with a
20-year tenure at Wright State University, and most recently, as director of the
Center for Medical Education at Creighton University School of Medicine in
Omaha, Nebraska. The author of more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, he was
recognized as one of four medical school faculty nationwide to receive the Alpha
Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award at the Association of
American Medical Colleges 2000 annual meeting.
NEW BUILDING BECOMES
FOCAL POINT FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
Two of MSUCOM’s jointly administered
departments – Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Physiology – have
found a new home in the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building, dedicated at
MSU on April 12. The new facility becomes the heart of the university’s
science enterprise, a complex that includes the Chemistry and Biochemistry
buildings, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, the Plant Biology
Building and the National Center for Food Safety and Toxicology.
The building, which stands six stories
tall and houses more than 350,000 gross square feet of space, shelters many MSU
inter-disciplinary centers and projects, including the newly founded Chronic
Disease Initiative, which includes cardiovascular, diabetes and cancer research.
"In building the Biomedical and
Physical Sciences Building and establishing a genuine science campus in East
Lansing," said MSU President Peter McPherson, "we are the architects
of basic science research for the 21st century at Michigan State
University."
Total cost of the building is
approximately $93 million, with state funds picking up three-quarters of the
cost. A number of private donations were made as well, including:
§ $5
million from the MSU Foundation
§ $2.5
million from the Ford Motor Co. Fund
§ $1
million from the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation
§ $1
million from entrepreneur and MSU alumnus Harley and Rebecca Hotchkiss
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