On Wednesday, November 12, the Ulster Community College Foundation, Inc., will present the 2003 Howard C. St. John Lecture endowed by Ulster Savings Bank, featuring Dr. Karen Hitchcock, President of the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her presentation, titled Nanotechnology and Biotechnology Mean Big Business for the Hudson Valley, will include her vision of how new technological developments and the investment of over $840 million at SUNY Albany will impact business and education in our region.

Hitchcock will present her talk twice: in a breakfast session at 7:30 a.m. and at 9:45 a.m. Both are free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Please phone (845) 687-5262.

Since becoming President of the University at Albany (SUNY) in 1996, Hitchcock has planned and implemented a broad range of initiatives to strengthen and expand the University’s programs. Notable among her accomplishments has been the creation of the Institute for Materials Research and Applied Sciences that has attracted major corporate and government investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, while providing hundreds of jobs.

Recent announcements concerning the establishment of research and development centers by SEMATECH, a consortium of the 12 major chip manufacturers in the world, by Tokyo Electron Ltd., as well as major initiatives in cancer genomics and biotechnology have clearly signaled that New York State and the University at Albany (SUNY) will be in the forefront in the redeveloping fields. Hitchcock will speak about these extraordinary economic investments and the implications for the entire Hudson Valley region.

Karen Hitchcock, Ph.D., earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from St. Lawrence University and a Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, with postdoctoral work in pulmonary cell biology at the Webb-Waring Institute for Medical Research at the University of Colorado Medical Center. She has been an administrator at SUNY Albany since1991, following faculty and administrative posts at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Tufts University School of Medicine.

For more information contact Marianne Collins at (845) 687-5093 or email collinsm@sunyulster.edu.