CONTACT: STEVE SANDERS
Associate Vice President for
Health Sciences Advancement
UI Foundation News
500 Levitt Center for University Advancement
Iowa City IA 52242
(319) 335-3305

Release: Immediate

NOTE TO EDITORS: This release was originally distributed on July 22, 1998

Research center at MEBRF to be named for Roy J. Carver

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- A $3 million contribution from the Carver Charitable Trust of Muscatine, Iowa, will help fund construction of the University of Iowa College of Medicine's new Medical Education and Biomedical Research Facility. In recognition of this gift to the UI Foundation and the Carver Trust's history of generous support of medical research at the UI, the research center on the top two floors of the facility's main wing will be identified as the Roy J. Carver Molecular Science Research Center.

"Awarding support for this project is consistent with Mr. Carver's aim of advancing scientific knowledge and improving human health through high-level research," said Troy Ross, executive administrator of the Carver Trust. "The Roy J. Carver Molecular Science Research Center will provide modern, flexible laboratory space to house the interdisciplinary research programs of some of the College of Medicine's finest biomedical scientists, many of whom have received, or are currently receiving, individual grant funding from the Carver Trust. The Carver Trustees are pleased that these programs will be enhanced as a result of this new facility."

The Carver Trust gift is among the first leadership gifts received during the early stage of the College of Medicine's $25 million facilities and endowment campaign, "Seeking Knowledge for Healing."

UI College of Medicine Dean Robert P. Kelch, said, "It's especially meaningful to have an Iowa-based organization step forward as a leader during the very early stages of this important project. As the next century brings changes in science and technology, the modular laboratories in the new Carver Molecular Science Research Center can be adapted for the most urgent types of biomedical research."

According to Kelch, the need for the new building became clear following a 1994 external review by the accrediting agency of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association, which assessed the college's overcrowded teaching facilities, some built more than 80 years ago, as inadequate for modern medical education.

"Iowa's new clinical curriculum cannot be effectively implemented in our current facilities. And the lack of sufficient modern laboratory space threatens our ability to continue to attract and retain top researchers and win external research grant funding," Kelch said.

The Carver Molecular Science Research Center will occupy the third and fourth levels of the main building and will include laboratory space, conference rooms and a shared equipment space for scientists working on various projects. The building's northeast wing will house the Cancer Research Center. The lower floors, dedicated to medical education, will feature small classrooms, seminar rooms, a computer classroom, a clinical skills training center and a large auditorium.

During his lifetime, Iowa industrialist and philanthropist Roy J. Carver of Muscatine contributed nearly $10 million to the UI in support of scholarships, professorships, medical research, the UI Hospitals and Clinics, the Iowa Opportunity Fund, and Iowa athletics. He died in 1981. Carver-Hawkeye Arena is named in recognition of Carver's gift to the Hawkeye Arena Recreation Campaign and many other projects.

Roy J. Carver's will created the Carver Charitable Trust to continue his "commitment to helping youth through educational opportunities and to improving the quality of life through medical and scientific research."

In the past 12 years, the Carver Charitable Trust has now contributed more than $23 million to UI projects across campus, such as biomedical research projects, faculty research initiatives, science education, technology in the UI Libraries system, a summer engineering institute, facilities improvements and student scholarships. This figure includes their most recent gift to the Medical Education and Biomedical Research Facility.

The UI Foundation is the preferred channel of support for private contributions to all areas of the UI. Foundation staff work with alumni and friends to provide funds for facilities improvements, scholarships, professorships and other forms of support for the UI.

9/25/98