WEB NEWS RELEASE
Gregory R. Hancock, EDMS Chair and Mark Wolff, Vice President of EMMES celebrate new endowed professorship partnership between EMMES and the College of Education.
COLLEGE PARK, MD (February 17, 2011) The EMMES Corporation and the University of Marylands Department of Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation (EDMS) have partnered to establish an endowed professorship. This partnership also signifies the first step in cultivating a mutually beneficial relationship between EMMES and the College of Education. The relationship between academia and industry has always been interdependent as both sectors can only grow as strong as the strength of the other.
"Those in industry often face real world problems but might lack the cutting edge methodological skills to address those problems. Conversely, researchers in academia are often wonderful at generating solutions to problems they perceive might exist, but cannot always connect with those applied researchers who experience those specific problems," said Gregory R. Hancock, EDMS Chair. "The current relationship symbolizes a mutual valuing, and indeed a mutual need, for folks on both sides of the fence to understand and learn from one another."
EMMES, a biostatistics company based in Rockville, MD, sees a lot of potential in the union and has made a generous contribution to the campaign. "Our investment in EDMS generates a better pool to hire from in a very exciting career field. Most of the work we do is applied, which means that our employees spend time interacting with clients and we would like to see students be more prepared and quantitatively comfortable in the field," said Mark Wolff, Vice President of EMMES. "Our company is based entirely on the intellectual product of our employees and its at College Park where people get to learn what is it that we need them to be able to do."
The generous contribution of EMMES to the endowed professorship ensures continued success of College Park graduates and strengthens the bond between academia and industry. Wolff was proud to be involved in such an important joint venture, stressing the importance of the relationship, and Hancock agreed. "This symbolizes a commitment by the research community to what we both value, ensuring the maintenance and continuous development of that which constitutes rigorous inquiry."
EMMES, a private sector company, plays a unique role by doing the majority of its work with the public sector, specifically the National Institute of Health. They contribute invaluable research that serves to sustain the health of people around the world. EDMS trains students with the skills that EMMES values and employs in their critical public health and clinical trial projects. The EDMS department is widely recognized as providing quantitative training unparalleled in terms of its combination of depth and breadth.
EDMS is still accepting contributions towards the establishment of an endowed professorship. More information can be found at http://www.education.umd.edu/EDMS/ or by contacting Gregory R. Hancock at ghancock@umd.edu.
-end-
For more information on the College of Education, visit: www.education.umd.edu
or contact
Halima Cherif, Assistant Director for Communications, at: hcherif@umd.edu
