Who's Who on Penn's campus

Roy Vagelos governs the Board of Trustees But Vagelos has already made a lasting impression on the University in numerous ways, including his $10 million donation towards the Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Construction of the building-- adjacent to the Chemistry Building on 34th and Spruce streets -- is rapidly nearing completion. The facility will include an engineering laboratory, along with the Institute for Medicine and Engineering. Air Force funds will cover the remaining $27 million construction costs. Before being elected chairperson of the Board of Trustees, Vagelos spent nearly 20 years at Merck & Co., serving as its CEO for nine years after a long tenure as director of research for the corporation. During his term at Merck, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, Vagelos many of the company's initiatives, including a $6 billion acquisition of Medco, a nationwide mail order pharmacy and managed care drug company. And during his tenure as CEO, Merck developed and implemented new drugs and strategies for dealing with health care issues. After Vagelos retired from Merck in 1994, the corporation endowed a chair in the Chemistry Department in his name. He was a Chemistry major as an undergraduate at Penn. As a Trustee, Vagelos has focused much of his energy on boosting the quality of science and research work that goes on at the University. Vagelos graduated from the University in 1950. He became a Term Trustee in 1986, and served on the presidential search committee that chose current University President Judith Rodin in 1993 before becoming chairperson of the Board.