The Alumni Fellow Award The Alumni Fellow Award is the most prestigious honor bestowed by the Penn State Alumni Association and is administered in cooperation with Penn State's academic colleges. Since 1973, the award has been given to a select group of alumni who are leaders in their professional fields. John
S. Heller '67 is the 2003 Alumni Fellow for Penn State Behrend.
He was honored at a campus ceremony on October 8,
2003. Mr. Heller is a highly successful researcher and scientist, who works as a top executive for Abbot Laboratories in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He attended Penn State Behrend in 1963 and 1964, and then transferred to University Park, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He holds a doctorate in biochemistry from Ohio University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine, where he worked for nearly ten years in medical research. For the past twenty years he has worked in research at Abbott Laboratories, a global, diversified health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical, diagnostic, nutritional, and health products. He is currently director of R&D for reagent development at Abbott Laboratories and supervises a team of thirty-eight scientists and technicians. The Alumni Fellow program provides recipients with the opportunity to accept an invitation by the president of the University to share their knowledge and expertise with the College community. As leaders in their professions, Alumni Fellows add a dimension to the academic curriculum not available in the traditional college classroom. While meeting with students, Alumni Fellows stimulate thought, debate, and action, frequently pointing students toward previously unconsidered goals. The University's Board of Trustees has designated
the title of Alumni Fellow as permanent and lifelong. |
