21 Mar MS in Biotechnology program celebrates 15 years
UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health
In 2002, the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health set out to meet the needs of the biotechnology industry and grow the sector in Wisconsin.
That effort, the Master of Science in Biotechnology Program, celebrates its 15th year in 2017, and it’s looking to continue to meet those needs in an ever-changing industry climate.
This demand for skilled biotechnology leaders will only increase, according to Ben Seffrood, class of 2016, and head of finance at Roche NimbleGen, a DNA sequencing company based in Madison.
Having employees who understand how to analyze an opportunity, propose and develop a product, and commercialize products within highly regulated and rapidly changing industries such as biotechnology or pharmaceutical is essential to a company’s ongoing success, he said.
“These days R&D budgets are tighter, R&D efficiency is a must, and launching products based on cool science but with essentially no revenue is not considered a success,” Seffrood said. “Businesses survive and thrive only when they create free cash flow.”
The biotechnology program was created under the guidance of Dr. Richard Moss, senior associate dean for basic research, biotechnology and graduate studies at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
The master’s degree program is taught on Thursday and Friday nights and Saturday mornings throughout the fall and spring semesters. While there is an online component, the class is still taught face-to-face at University Research Park’s MG&E Innovation Center in Madison and Promega Corporation’s Biopharmaceutical Technology Center Institute in Fitchburg.
Classes, taught by UW-Madison faculty and biotechnology industry professionals, follow a curriculum of science, policy, law and business. Read more …