April 11, 2000

UMBI Research Facility in Montgomery County Renamed to Honor Isadore and Bertha Gudelsky

ROCKVILLE, MD -- The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute will rename the facility housing its Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB) to honor the late Isadore and Bertha Gudelsksy.

The facility, previously called CARB I, is located on the University System of Maryland Shady Grove campus in Rockville, MD. The University System of Maryland Board of Regents approved the action.

"The family is very grateful to the Board of Regents for naming the CARB I Building in honor of Isadore and Bertha Gudelsky, who were pioneers in the development of the Washington, D.C. area and it surrounding suburbs," says Philip N. Margolius, secretary-treasurer of the Isadore and Bertha Gudelsky Foundation. "Isadore was a visionary in financing this development; the Foundation was established to provide a means of giving back to the surrounding community, including Montgomery County."

Comments Donald Langenberg, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, "We are delighted that the Regents have chosen to honor in this manner the Isadore and Bertha Gudelsky Family Foundation, which donated the current 50 acre site of the USM Shady Grove campus to Montgomery County 15 years ago. Indeed, this recognition is long overdue - the Gudelsky Family Foundation has made extraordinary dreams come true for higher education, enabling some of the finest scientific research in the country to occur in Montgomery County."

Jennie Hunter-Cevera, UMBI president, made the original request to rename CARB I. "We are indeed fortunate that the Gudelsky Family Foundation had such foresight several years ago and that it has remained keenly interested in Shady Grove and in the medical research and education taking place at CARB," she says. "It seems appropriate indeed to give the Gudelsky name to the building that since 1989 has been home to UMBI's first research center, CARB, and that was also the first building on the Shady Grove campus." Hunter-Cevera said that formal ceremonies renaming the building and honoring the Gudelsky Foundation will held later in the year.

The Gudelsky family originally donated the land to Montgomery County for a medically related project, but no acceptable use surfaced until the University System approached the family about redirecting the use of the land for educational purposes. The Gudelsky Family Foundation's approval of that proposal led to the creation of the Shady Grove Center.

One of UMBI's five research centers spanning the Baltimore-Washington corridor, CARB conducts research in protein engineering, structure, and function and provides advanced technical capabilities to the biotechnology industry. Expanded in 1997, the 47,000 square foot facility houses state of the art laboratories, instrumentation, and high-resolution interactive computer graphics, as well as a special laboratory for nuclear magnetic resonance. Roberto Poljak, CARB director, leads a team of about 100 faculty and staff.

Founded in 1985, UMBI includes, in addition to CARB, the Center for Agricultural Biotechnology in College Park and the Center of Marine Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology Center, and Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore.