Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences
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Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences (short KGI) is a small graduate school in Claremont, California. It was founded in 1997 through a startup grant of $50 million from the W. M. Keck Foundation. KGI is a member of the Claremont Colleges.
KGI offers a professional Master of Bioscience (MBS) degree as well as a PhD in Applied Life Sciences. The two year MBS program integrates scientific, engineering, and business curriculum, culminating in a Team Master's Project (TMP) sponsored by one of KGI's industry partners.
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[edit] Student Life
KGI students have a rich and active life outside of the rigorous MBS curriculum. Events such as Alumni Dinners, Picnic Pool Parties, Donut Tuesday, and End of the Semester Happy Hour are examples of the activities funded by Student Life. Funding is also available for various clubs and interest groups (Movie Club, Wine Club, Golf Club, etc). Student Government also plans and coordinates additional activities for student throughout the year including the End of the Year/Graduation Party.
[edit] Team Masters Project
The capstone of the MBS program is the TMP in which teams of three to five students work with sponsoring companies to solve real problems. The Team Masters Projects ideally include both business and technical aspects; for example, students may be asked to validate a new technology and to develop a strategy for market penetration of the technology. The actual deliverables for each TMP are negotiatied by the student team and the company liaison.
[edit] Careers
KGI MBS graduates have been hired by companies like Amgen, Beckman Coulter, and Eli Lily. Graduate employment is typically in the areas of Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, Business Development, Project Managemnt and/or Research.
[edit] Other
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, 985 Atlantic Avenue, #100, Alameda, CA 94501, (510) 748-9001.
Notable members of Keck's advisory council include Bruce Alberts, Simon Ramo, and J. Craig Venter.
In June 2006 KGI received a grant of $100,000 from the Michael J. Connell Foundation of Pasadena in support of Professor Animesh Ray's project: “Creating a Comprehensive Integrated Database for Multidisciplinary Data on the Avian Influenza.”
In January 2006 Dr. Matthew S. Croughan was named the first George B. and Joy Rathmann Professor and Director of the Amgen Bioprocessing Center. With more than 20 years of experience in research, engineering, bioprocessing and manufacturing, Dr. Croughan brings a tremendous amount of knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm to KGI.
In April 2005, the Amgen Foundation donated $2 million to establish a teaching and research scale bioprocessing center at KGI. An additional $1.75 million was donated by Dennis Fenton which, along with an additional $750,000 from the W.M. Keck Foundation, will endow a profesorship in honor of George B. Rathmann to direct the center.
A group of KGI faculty were recently awarded a $4.88 million grant through the NSF's Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research (FIBR) program to study the basis of modularity in biology.
Ionian Technologies was founded in 2000, and is the first spin-off company to commercialize technology developed at KGI. Ionian focuses on molecular diagnostics for emerging and infectious diseases, and in 2004 was awarded a contract to develop a handheld biothreat detector using isothermal amplification of DNA[1].
[edit] Opposition
The decision to set up the Keck Graduate Institute as a seventh Claremont College met with opposition from the faculty and students of the existing Claremont Colleges.[1] The two primary complaints were that the Institute decided not to grant tenure to its faculty, and that it was originally intended to be built on the Bernard Field Station, an area of undeveloped scrubland used by some biology classes at the other colleges. The faculty of five of the colleges passed faculty resolutions condemning the Institute's decision not to grant tenure, and four passed another resolution condemning the plans to build on the Bernard Field Station.
However, as KGI approaches its tenth anniversary, opposition to the program has faded into the background. Ultimately, a different site to the south of the other colleges was chosen. The institute still does not offer tenure, but faculty typically have access their own reserach labs, can carry grants independent of the institute, and provided with full benefits. Faculty members are heavily integrated into the business practices of the Institute.
[edit] References
- ^ "KGI is a Fiasco (editorial)", The Student Life (Pomona College), October 20, 2000.
[edit] External links
| The Claremont Colleges |
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| Claremont McKenna College • Harvey Mudd College • Pitzer College • Pomona College • Scripps College • Claremont Graduate University • Keck Graduate Institute |
