The University has received a $5.5 million gift from the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Company—one of the largest single contributions in the University’s history—to support medical and scientific research in the Medical School, College of Pharmacy and Department of Chemistry.
$3.6 million of the gift will be used to establish three endowed professorships—the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professorship in Chemistry and two new Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professorships in Molecular Medicine at the Medical School. Faculty selected for these new positions will conduct research in the fields of basic chemistry, molecular biology, biotechnology, genetics and human gene therapy.
“We’re confident these professorships will serve to strengthen the University’s leadership in medical science,” said Melvin R. Goodes, Warner-Lambert chair and chief executive officer. “We’re proud of our 95-year partnership with the U-M and recognize that our cooperative efforts have helped improve the health of people around the world.”
The remaining $1.9 million from the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis gift will be used to support graduate students in pharmacy and medicine. $1 million designated for the College of Pharmacy will establish the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Endowment for Graduate Student Aid, which will provide tuition and financial support for two doctoral candidates per year working in the pharmaceutical sciences.
$900,000 will be used to establish Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis fellowships to assist graduate and postgraduate students in biotechnology, gene therapy and basic science. These fellowships will be administered by the Medical School and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies.
“This commitment represents a benchmark step in the important long-term relationship between the University and Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis,” said President James J. Duderstadt. “The participation of companies like these that are dedicated to the highest standards of corporate responsibility will be essential to Michigan’s continued excellence and national leadership in higher education and research.”
“We place a high value on the quantity and quality of the interactions we have with the University in the physical and biological sciences, in pharmaceutical sciences and in medicine,” said Ronald M. Cresswell, chair of pharmaceutical research for Ann Arbor’s Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories. “The ability to collaborate closely with University of Michigan researchers is the main reason our research laboratories are located in Ann Arbor.”
“Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis and the U-M already have several cooperative areas of research where we share facilities and people,” said George D. Zuidema, vice-provost for medical affairs. “One of the great benefits of this gift to both institutions is that it will allow this close collaboration to continue and expand.”
Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis’ support of medical, chemical and pharmaceutical research and teaching at the University began in 1895, when the Parke-Davis Research Division established a fellowship in chemistry for research in medicinal substances.
The Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis gift is one of the largest gifts received during the introductory phase of the five-year Campaign for Michigan, which officially began Friday. Increasing the amount of permanent endowment funds available for professorships and student financial support is a key goal of the fund-raising campaign.
