Appointment of Vice President for Health Science Partnerships

October 31, 2005

Members of the Rutgers Community:

I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Kenneth Breslauer, Dean of the Division of Life Sciences, has been appointed as Vice President for Health Science Partnerships at Rutgers, effective November 1, 2005.

In this newly created position, Dr. Breslauer will work in collaboration with Executive Vice President Philip Furmanski and me to develop and promote inter-institutional initiatives in the biosciences. Dr. Breslauer is already involved in many of these programs, including: establishment of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey (together with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and other academic and research centers throughout the state), the New Jersey Public University Research Foundation (a partnership of Rutgers, UMDNJ and the New Jersey Institute of Technology), the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the New Jersey Biomaterials Center, the Human Genetics Institute, and the new Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Joint Committee on Major Research Equipment Funding Proposals.

Indeed, it is because of his superb work on these initiatives, and the great potential for advancing them and for developing more such programs in cooperation with our sister institutions, that we created this new position and selected Dr. Breslauer as its first incumbent.

Dr. Breslauer will also continue to serve as Dean of Life Sciences and as the Linus C. Pauling Professor within the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in New Brunswick/Piscataway, where he has established a world-renowned program in biothermodynamics, particularly as it relates to the development and application of diagnostic and therapeutic protocols. Dr. Breslauer's research programs have established the first energetic databases that are being used by the scientific community to rationally design drugs and gene regulators, as well as to detect mutations.

Ken Breslauer has provided many years of excellent leadership for the life sciences at Rutgers, and his direction of our new initiatives in partnership with other institutions will bring us to new heights of accomplishment and recognition. I know you will join me in celebrating this appointment and in offering your support to Dr. Breslauer as he tackles the challenges of this new position at Rutgers.

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey