Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) will honor philanthropists Iris S. and Bert L. Wolstein today with the dedication of the new 320,000 sq. ft. research building bearing their name.

During the dedication ceremony, the Wolsteins will receive the Samuel Mather Award for Philanthropy, UHC's most prestigious award, in recognition of their exceptional generosity and civic vision. The facility was named for the Wolsteins because of their $25 million gift toward the $110 million cost of the building.

The dedication event is an invitation-only, black-tie celebration, but Case faculty and staff may see the building during the Associates Day Open House from 3-6 p.m. October 17. Refreshments will be available, and tours will be self-guided.

"Iris and I have always been interested in philanthropy with respect to education and health," said Bert Wolstein, the founder of Developers Diversified Realty Corp. and the Heritage Development Co., which build shopping centers, hotels, restaurants and golf courses.

Located on Cornell Road and Circle Drive on the Case and UHC campus in University Circle, the new research building will be home for up to 700 research personnel in fields such as cancer and genetic epidemiology. The gleaming, six-story structure built with limestone, metal and glass was designed by Dijk Westlake Reed Leskosky Architects of Cleveland.

Speaking at the dedication will be, from Case, Edward M. Hundert, president, and Ralph I. Horwitz, dean of the School of Medicine, and from University Hospitals Health System, Thomas F. Zenty III, president and chief executive officer, and Fred C. Rothstein, president and chief executive officer of UHC. The Wolsteins also will make remarks.

Members of the Case community also can see the new building if they attend a symposium, "Science and Education Serving Society," from 9 a.m. to noon October 17 in its auditorium.

In addition to Bert Wolstein, Hundert, Horwitz and Rothstein, the program will feature Ohio Gov. Robert Taft; Sanford Markowitz, the Ingalls Professor of Cancer Genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, who will speak on the genes that cause colon cancer; James Kazura, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Global Health and Diseases, who will speak on global infectious diseases; and the keynote speaker Leon Rosenberg, currently with Princeton University, former dean of the Yale University School of Medicine and former president of the Pharmaceutical Research Institute and senior vice president of scientific affairs at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

In addition to being a specialist in inherited metabolic disorders in children, Rosenberg also is researching the nation's medical research enterprise and its key players, such as government, academia and industry.

To register for the symposium, go to http://www.case.edu/events/wolstein or call 368-3836.

Return to the online edition of the 10-16-03 Campus News.