Frontage Laboratories Chairman and Founder Presented $200,000 Personal Check to WCU President for New Biomedical Engineering Program
Chairman and Founder of Frontage Laboratories Song Li, Ph.D., presented a $200,000
personal check to West Chester University President Christopher Fiorentino today to
endow the Lei and Song Li Scholarship for Biomedical Engineering at WCU for those planning to pursue their studies in the University’s new Biomedical Engineering Degree Program. In an amazing act of generosity, Dr. Li and his family, who initially planned to
present a $100,000 personal check to the University during today’s ceremony, suddenly
added an additional $100,000 just a few hours before the presentation; the generous
holiday gift to the University’s new Biomedical Engineering Degree Program then totaled
$200,000.
Dr. Song Li founded Frontage Laboratories in 2001 with the ambition of building a client-focused organization to help solve the most complex drug development challenges. Prior to Frontage, Dr. Li held management positions at Great Valley Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth. During this time, he led numerous projects related to the development of pharmaceutical products. Most recently, Dr. Li received the Healthcare CEO award from Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the “Realizing the American Dream” award from the Pennsylvania Welcoming Society, and the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award from the AABDC.
“West Chester University is honored to be the recipient of such a generous gift,” said President Christopher Fiorentino. “At a time when the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects a 23 percent growth in the number of biomedical jobs needed by 2024, Dr. Li’s gift will help cultivate the next generation of biomedical scientists at West Chester University. We are deeply grateful.”
WCU’s new Bachelor of Science in Engineering Degree Program offers tracks in biosystems, bioinstrumentation, and imaging; biomolecular and biochemical; biomechanics; and biomaterials and tissues. All of the required core classes are offered through the Department of Physics and Engineering in the University’s College of the Sciences and Mathematics.
The new program, which was recently launched in the fall of 2019, will have a permanent home in the
new 176,000-square-foot, $130-million Sciences & Engineering Center and The Commons
(SECC) that is currently being constructed on campus. The SECC is the largest building
project in the University’s 148-year history. In addition to housing the new biomedical
engineering program, the building will be home to the University’s rapidly growing
health science curricula, physics, and expansive academic and support space. The SECC
is scheduled to open in the fall of 2020.