Consortium unites sciences, business

By JENNIFER NEJMAN
Collegian Staff Writer

Integrating the science and business worlds for professors and students is one goal of the Life Sciences Consortium -- an organization that draws faculty and students from seven colleges at Penn State together.

By exposing graduate students to academic research and business careers, the consortium aims to help these students decide where they want to go after they get their doctorate degrees, said director Nina Fedoroff, professor of life sciences.

"What I liked about (the program) was how it mixed together life sciences and engineering," Bruce Howie (graduate-biomolecular transport dynamics) said.

Howie, one of the students in the 1997 class of fellows, said he selected the program for this aspect.

"In the beginning it kind of seemed like we were all paired off -- we were the engineers and they were the biology majors -- but I think now they've done a good job of bringing us together," he said.

The first full year of operation for the consortium was 1996, and the graduate program began officially in 1997, Fedoroff said.

This Fall Semester, 29 students entered the program as fellows, said Dorothy Sweeney, coordinator of the fellows and internships.

Doctorate programs last five years and the consortium supports graduate students for two of those years, she said, adding the students also work as teaching assistants.

Students select a program appealing to their interests and are then paired with professors in the area of research.

"The Life Sciences Consortium is different because it teaches you to think in different disciplines," said Toni Schaeffer (graduate-ecological and molecular plant physiology), who entered the program in 1997.

If students are unsure where they want to work after graduation, the integrative program offers the chance to dabble in many areas, said Judith Bond, co-director of graduate education for the consortium.

"Very often students will have some idea of future goals," Bond said, "but little experience in settings other than colleges or universities. We encourage them to go out of the academic setting for internships during their graduate school training."

Examples of unusual career choices include working at firms that publish science magazines or at law firms, she said.

Some consortium courses are taught jointly by faculty at both University Park and the Hershey Medical Center through the use of video-conferencing classrooms, Fedoroff said.

Interacting with professors from Hershey is one aspect of the video-class settings Schaeffer said she enjoys.

But these settings, like any other class, work better when they are smaller.

"You can argue back and forth between here and Hershey," she said, "but when the classes get a little large there is less of that and you feel like you're watching TV."

In addition to the graduate program, the consortium runs a summer internship for undergraduates and provides a forum for university professors in a variety of research areas to communicate.

For more information on programs and events, students can check the Life Sciences Consortium World Wide Web site at www.lsc.psu.edu.