Penn's Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management is expected to attract undergraduate students from around the world with its atypical curriculum.
Scheduled to begin next fall, the Vagelos Program is Penn's response to the increasing importance of science-related industries such as health care, pharmaceutical and biotechnology.
"Medical [and] pharmaceutical professions are booming," Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dennis DeTurck said. "What the field needs is people who have both the scientific training and business expertise to manage it."
A cooperative endeavor between the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences, the program will offer students a solid background in marketing and finance as well as the sciences.
Despite the overlap between the schools, students will not be required to complete two degrees. Instead, students participating in the program will complete the requirements of their individual school while taking a common set of core courses.
"It's kind of a super double major in which you major in life sciences [such as biology or biochemistry] and management," professor of Health Care Systems and Vagelos Program co-Chairman Mark Pauly said.
Pauly will be joined by Biology professor Philip Rea in leading the program.
Both Pauly and Rea plan to accept 25 students into the program. Students can apply to transfer into the program at the end of their freshman year. However, incoming freshman will also be recruited.
"This is going to be an elite program," Pauly said. "We have leverage to combine a No. 1 business school with a very good science program. No other business school can do that."
The titles of the classes are as exceptional as the program itself. Students will take a seminar entitled "Introduction to Biotechnology and Management." The course will examine everything from the management of research to the marketing of useful discoveries.
In addition to one-of-a-kind classes, students will be provided with paid business and research internships during the summers of their sophomore and junior years.
After completing the internships, students will conduct independent biology-research projects in the first semester of their senior year.
The interdisciplinary approach to the program fulfills a goal of both University President Amy Gutmann and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Rebecca Bushnell.
"This is going to be a signature undergraduate program," Bushnell said.
The program is funded by Penn alumnus Roy Vagelos, an emeritus University trustee and former chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Inc. The Vagelos Scholars Program is also named in honor of his wife, Diana.
