[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 53 (Thursday, April 22, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO DR. STUART D. COOK

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 22, 2004

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, it is with a great deal of respect that I 
rise to acknowledge the accomplishments made by Dr. Stuart D. Cook 
during his tenure as president of the University of Medicine and 
Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). As Dr. Cook steps down from the 
presidency after six years, the Concerned Citizens at UMDNJ and the 
UMDNJ-University Hospital are proud of the contributions he has made to 
this institute of excellence.
  During his presidency, Dr. Cook partnered with the Board of Trustees 
at UMDNJ, faculty, staff and students to create a compelling vision for 
the future. Through his efforts, federal research support to UMDNJ more 
than doubled over the past five years. Over the past four years, the 
university's funding from the National Institutes of Health has 
increased at a faster rate than the average for all schools and 
universities in the nation. The National Science Foundation, in its 
most recent rankings of research universities across the nation, ranks 
UMDNJ as the number one research university in New Jersey as measured 
by federal research expenditures and 71st out of the top 100 research 
universities in the country. This marks the university's highest ever 
ranking.
  Under Dr. Cook's leadership, the university is in the midst of a $535 
million statewide capital construction program to upgrade existing 
space and provide new space for scientists and clinicians. On the 
Newark campus, which is in the heart of the 10th Congressional 
District, the University Behavioral Health Sciences Building and the 
International Center for Public Health have been completed. 
Additionally, construction of the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School-
University Hospital Cancer Center and a second Ambulatory Care Center 
are underway. Construction of a new clinical building for the UMDNJ-New 
Jersey Dental School will be completed in the first quarter of next 
year. On the Piscataway campus, a new building housing a research tower 
for UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and UMDNJ-School of Public 
Health was opened. In New Brunswick, the steel structure for the Child 
Health Institute was completed and the new wing of Cancer Institute of 
New Jersey facility will open in early 2005. On the Stratford campus, 
the University Doctors Pavilion is open and construction is underway 
for a new wing of the Science Building.
  Complementing these outstanding efforts, other initiatives include, 
the establishment of a University Professorship Program which has to 
date, named 15 researchers to the faculty. This program significantly 
increased the overhead revenues to the University as the researchers 
brought with them more than $7.5 million in federal funding. The 
University also created a program that is unique in the nation--the 
Master Educators Guild--which recognizes teaching excellence. The Guild 
now has 48 faculty members. Through collaboration with other colleges 
and universities throughout the state, a school of public health 
emerged. As a result of this effort and Dr. Cook's leadership, the 
School of Public Health established the Institute for the Elimination 
of Health Disparities.
  Mr. Speaker, as he returns to the faculty at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical 
School to continue his clinical practice and research in multiple 
sclerosis, I urge my colleagues to commend Dr. Cook for all that he has 
done in his years as president of UMDNJ.

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