MILWAUKEE—A two-story building tucked into a wooded parcel on Milwaukee’s northwest side once served as the “think tank” for Marquette Electronics, noted Milwaukee medical device company founded by Michael J. Cudahy and Warren Cozzens.
In the future, the Cozzens and Cudahy Research Center will be used as a “think tank” of a different kind: a place for students of color to discover careers in science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called STEM disciplines.
Cudahy joins Michael Lovell, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), on Thursday, Jan. 17, at 10 a.m. for an announcement at the center, 9100 N. Swan Rd.
At the event, Cudahy will talk about his experience in launching Marquette Electronics to 20 UWM students of color who are participating in a STEM “boot camp,” sponsored by UWM and the Wisconsin Alliance for Minority Participation (WiscAMP). Bolstering the number of students of color who enter STEM careers is a topic of particular interest to philanthropist Cudahy, and it will be a focus of the building’s activities.
“This will be a place of STEM innovation for the STEM pipeline,” says Joan Prince, UWM vice chancellor for Global Inclusion and Engagement. “It will be a place for hands-on learning for middle-school, high-school and undergraduate college students who will be mentored and taught by graduate students and UWM STEM faculty. In turn, our graduate students will be mentored by faculty and researchers from the corporate community.”
Cudahy built the center in 1983 as a research and innovation hub for his company. He retained the building after selling Marquette Electronics to GE Medical Systems, now GE Healthcare, in 1998. UWM has leased all or part of the building for almost a decade.
In 2010, Cudahy donated $2 million to help fund UWM’s Innovation Campus development near the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa. He was awarded a UWM honorary degree in 2003.
