The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation
Wallace Coulter’s deepest passion was to improve health care and make these improvements available and affordable to everyone. Thus, it should come as no surprise, that Mr. Coulter dedicated his wealth to continuing to improve health care through medical research and engineering. Prior to his death Mr. Coulter established the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation to fund these areas.

In July of 2000, the Foundation made a $5,000,000 grant specifically to the Department of Biomedical Engineering at FIU. The timing of this grant allowed the university to apply for and receive matching funds from the State of Florida which resulted in a $10,000,000 combined grant to the department. This entire grant established an endowment to advance research and education through the establishment of two endowed chairs, scholarship and research funds, a biomedical engineering lecture series and a young inventors program.

Georgia Institute of Technology
Recognizing that Mr. Coulter attended Georgia Tech, the Foundation became acquainted with the unique department of biomedical engineering that was a joint program between Georgia Tech and Emory University in Atlanta. Wallace Coulter attributed his engineering discipline to his time spent at Georgia Tech. It soon became evident that this program was worthy of funding based on the close collaboration between the engineers at Georgia Tech and the medical staff at Emory.

In 2001, the Foundation made a $25,000,000 landmark grant to the combined program. In recognition of this grant, the combined department is now known as the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. Included within this grant are both endowment and operating funds to purchase laboratory equipment and fund department chairs. In addition, this grant contained a unique $8,000,000 endowment to provide ongoing funding for translational research. Each year, co-investigators comprised of engineering faculty from Georgia Tech and medical staffs from Emory apply for annual grants to fund research that may ultimately lead to improvements in patient care. The results of this program have been so promising, that it has become the template for the Foundation in designing its Translational Research Partnership Program.

Wallace H Coulter Biomedical Engineering Department
Whitaker Engineering Building ........Emory University

Westminster College
Mr. Coulter began college at Westminster College, a small liberal arts school in Fulton, Missouri. Although he only attended the college as a freshman, he credited the school with sparking his lifelong love of learning. Wallace Coulter remained a generous alumnus throughout his life. Today, the school is famous for among other things, the site where Winston Churchill made his famous iron curtain speech in 1946.

Recognizing Mr. Coulter’s interest in the school, in 2002, the Foundation made a $30,000,000 grant to Clarkson’s School of Engineering. This grant allowed the university to further enhance its core areas such as colloidal science, multidisciplinary project learning and rehabilitative engineering. In addition, the grant provides an endowment to provide scholarships for underrepresented students. Today, the school of engineering bears Mr. Coulter’s name.

City College of New York
Like many other charitable institutions, after 9/11 the Foundation wanted to provide some assistance to the people of New York. Recognizing the disruption in funding available to the City University of New York, the Foundation became acquainted with City College. This is a public university in the truest sense, having modest tuition and providing broad opportunity to the diverse population of New York. The Department of Biomedical Engineering not only has a diverse student body, but a diverse faculty both in gender and national origin. In particular, the department has forged relationships with many of the fine teaching hospitals in the area to provide a first class learning experience with modest means. In 2003, the Foundation provided the department with a $2,100,000 grant to fund laboratory construction and fund faculty chairs. In 2005, the Foundation agreed to provide additional support to the BME department in the form of a challenge grant and funding for three additional faculty members. As of July 2006, this one to one challenge grant resulted in a grant of $750,000 from the Foundation to City College. The Foundation has made grants to City College in excess of $3,000,000.

Dr Yeon Ahn and Wallace

1. It is driven primarily by considerations of use and practical application of the research results, as opposed to basic research, which is driven primarily by a quest for knowledge.
2. It envisions the development of a practical solution that addresses a particular clinical problem or unmet clinical need.
3. The research results generally include protectable intellectual property.
4. It involves clinical application as a goal, and therefore requires a transition or translation of the research from a research laboratory to the clinic – from bench to bedside.
5. It often envisions a particular product as the endpoint of development.
6. It involves commercialization as a goal and therefore requires a transfer of the technology from the academic institution to a commercial entity for final product development, manufacturing, marketing and sales.