March 16, 2007

George Wodicka made these comments during the $100 million Mann Institute endowment announcement at Purdue University.

Mann Institute opens up world of opportunities in life sciences

Good morning. Speaking for all of Purdue University Biomedical Engineering, I want to thank Alfred Mann and everyone from this foundation. This has been a very exciting time for us.

In just the first few years of this new century, we have added an undergraduate program and expanded into a new school for our College of Engineering. We have added top faculty. We have become a named school — the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

And this academic year we moved into this wonderful new $25 million Biomedical Engineering Building. The history of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue has been incredible.

Thanks to this announcement this morning and all we have accomplished, the future looks even brighter.

The Mann Institute at Purdue University is a beacon that is lighting our path to the future.

I am also here today representing all of our faculty at Purdue. We deeply appreciate your confidence in the discovery that will emerge from our work.

The mission of Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering is to strengthen the United States as a world leader in medical devices through solid education, research, and technology translation infrastructure.

At the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, we have an applications-oriented culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.

This culture was created by Leslie Geddes and his colleagues in founding the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center at Purdue in the mid-1970s.

Our partnerships include those with business and industry. Our partnerships include our close collaboration with the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Our partnerships include the state of Indiana, which helped us realize the dream of this Biomedical Engineering Building.

Our partnerships include those that reach across our campus connecting with Purdue’s School of Veterinary Medicine, various centers in Discovery Park, and more.

We have received tremendous support from the state of Indiana and from numerous private foundations such as the Whitaker Foundation.

The Whitaker Foundation played a key role in building this world-class facility.

We have received tremendous support for growing our education and research enterprise from countless alumni and friends including the Weldon family, whose gift to Purdue led to naming of this school.

We have been creative in starting numerous companies in Purdue Research Park. We have licensed new technologies benefiting businesses both large and small. This has helped raise to prominence the medical device industry in Indiana.

Our partnership with the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering is the next step in our plan for an ever-growing impact on the economy and the lives of patients worldwide.

The Alfred E. Mann Institute at Purdue is a visionary approach to filling a critical need on our campus. It provides the expertise and resources to rapidly develop our early-stage technologies and efficiently bring them to the patients who need them most.

Our faculty and staff welcome the opportunity to lend their skills and energy to this exciting, new model.

We believe it will greatly enhance our ability to translate ideas into widespread medical practice improving the lives of people.

Our students will benefit significantly through their participation in development of projects at the Alfred E. Mann Institute. They will be exposed early in their careers to the practical aspects of this growing field. They will learn skills that will serve them throughout their lives and careers.

We welcome this opportunity to collaborate with the leadership of the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering to create a strong and unique institute that builds upon the strengths of Purdue and our faculty in new and innovative ways.

This morning, the doors to the future have been opened. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Thank you.

George Wodicka is the head of Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.