Degree links business, tech

Wharton MBA students are constantly searching for the next lucrative venture, and now Penn is providing them with yet another opportunity -- this time in the form of a new dual MBA and Biotechnology degree.

Four students are currently enrolled in the program that was implemented last spring and first made available this semester.

"Where else can an MBA student look at DNA microarray data in the morning and learn about biotechnology licensing in the afternoon? -- only at Penn, and particularly at Wharton," said Biotechnology Director Scott Diamond in a written statement.

Three of the University's schools are involved in this new dual degree program. The School of Arts and Sciences and the Engineering School already collaborate to provide a Master's in biotechnology, and now the Wharton School will take care of the MBA end.

"It's a dual degree program, so students are getting two degrees, and they're really getting the best of what Penn has to offer -- a great MBA program from the Wharton School and a great science and technology program from the Biotechnology faculty at Penn," Wharton Dean Patrick Harker said. "In order to be successful in this industry, you really need a combination of business school and an understanding for the technology. It's not just enough to wing it."

School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston said that this program also helps to foster a sense of community between Penn's assorted graduate schools.

"It's a great example of inter-school cooperation," Preston said. "People sometimes say it's difficult at Penn to cooperate between schools, and this is actually a very good example. This was not a difficult program to put together."

Harker said that the program, which kicked off last spring, began with one of Penn's Trustees.

"One of the University Trustees has an M.D. and MBA from Penn and is now in the private equity venture capital business," Harker said. "He said that his biggest problem was not finding enough people to hire who understood both the business and science aspects of biotechnology, so he gave us the inspiration."

And with this inspiration came the MBA and Biotechnology dual degree.

"In the Biotechnology program alone, we have over 100 students," Diamond said in an interview. "We just founded the program last spring, just five months ago, and we already have four students enrolled in it."

Diamond said he anticipates that in two to three years' time, the program will have between 15 to 20 students. Part of the appeal, he said, is the current state of the nation, where biotechnology is rapidly emerging as an important -- and profitable -- discipline.

"There's a tremendous sense of opportunity in the field of biotechnology, with the sequencing of the human genome and the emergence of industries biology," Diamond said in the interview. "These create great opportunities, and we're learning that the pace of information development is rapidly accelerating and creating some important business opportunities in the science development."

Much like the biotechnology industry, the dual degree program is still in its early stages. But Diamond said he believes that Penn is the perfect place to stage such an experiment.

"I think that Penn is very unique in its ability to do this," he said in the interview. "There is a medical school on one campus, an engineering school on one campus, right with an arts and science and business school.

"There's very few universities that have all of those attributes all on one campus, plus we are nestled right in the middle of all of these pharmaceutical houses in the surrounding area."

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