CCNY announces a $2.4 million gift to its Master's in Translational Medicine (MTM) program by Seymour and Pearl Moskowitz.
The City College of New York proudly announces a $2.4 million gift to its Master's in Translational Medicine (MTM) program by Seymour and Pearl Moskowitz. The gift will have a profound impact on the success and growth of MTM, a five-year-old program that is a collaboration between the Grove School of Engineering and CUNY School of Medicine.
In the past, the Moskowitzes generously donated scholarship money which allowed MTM to welcome its largest cohort of students to date. Mr. Moskowitz is a 1954 engineering graduate of CCNY.
“This most generous gift from Seymour and Pearl Moskowitz allows to expand the ways in which we educate and train people to work together to address unmet needs in healthcare,” said Jeffrey S. Garanich, director of the MTM program. “We could not be more excited.”
With the announcement of this larger gift, the most immediate plans for the funds are to expand the MTM administrative team; pilot the MTM Fellows program allowing MTM alumni to continue development of their prototypes and work with CCNY faculty to assess commercialization of their research; and work with local Harlem schools to host Biodesign Boot camps to introduce students to the way MTM teaches translational medicine.
Past graduates of the nascent program have already gone on to secure jobs at Medtronic, GE Healthcare, Regeneron, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Hospital for Special Surgery and The National Institutes of Health.
“Seymour and Pearl Moskowitz have made a visionary gift to biomedical engineering at CCNY,” said City College President Vince Boudreau. “Their early understanding of how a Center for Innovation in Medical Technology can position our campus to more effectively discover and develop medical solutions to disease and injury makes their generosity all the more striking. This kind of support--pioneering investment in a program that can revolutionize an entire field of work at City College--is absolutely priceless.”
During his extended career, noted engineer, researcher, and developer Moskowitz has focused on technological solutions to address critical national issues. During the Cold War, he designed and developed technology for operating turbines at very high temperatures to power advanced military aircraft; during the Middle East oil embargo, he developed clean technology for burning high sulfur coal in turbine electric power systems that would meet emissions standards; and following 9/11, he managed the development of a mobile system to rapidly detect chemical/biological terrorism threats. He is the holder of seven patents.
After graduating from CCNY’s School of Technology in 1954, Sy Moskowitz joined Curtiss-Wright Corporation, an aerospace engineering company, where he made his mark for advancements in the field of aero-propulsion systems. He then brought his extensive technical and management experience to Vitro Corporation, a systems engineering and integration company, where he served as Vice President of Technology with responsibilities for the company-funded R&D laboratory programs.
Moskowitz and his business partner then teamed with the New York private equity investment firm Caxton-Iseman Capital LLC to acquire Anteon International Corp., a company providing mission-critical information technology services to federal agencies. As Executive Vice President of Technology, focusing on revenue growth and profit strategies and technical and business risk assessment and mitigation strategies, Anteon grew more than ten-fold during his tenure.
Moskowitz co-founded and became President of CoVant Management Inc., a company that acquires and manages portfolio companies specializing in counter-terrorism technology in support of the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and intelligence agencies. He served as Executive Vice President and Board member of CoVant Technologies, LLC, a leading government services investment firm, and a Board member of A-T Solutions Inc., a counter-terrorism solutions company. In addition, he was a member of the International Council of Advisors of the National Geographic Society, a Trustee of the United Jewish Endowment Fund of Greater Washington, and sat on the boards of several companies.
Moskowitz, as mentor and humanist, has been a bighearted supporter of City College. He generously donated a gas turbine engine to the mechanical engineering lab, and endowed undergraduate scholarships in mechanical and biomedical engineering, as well as a doctoral fellowship in biomedical engineering. His generosity and wise counsel has been recognized by the Alumni Association with the Townsend Harris Medal, and by The Grove School on its Wall of Honor. He received an honorary doctorate in recognition of his lifetime achievements from City College in 2018. He is married to Pearl Moskowitz, who co-designed the MTM grant with her husband. Pearl Moskowitz is actively involved in civic activities and was the first woman elected to the City Council in Fort Lee, NJ, serving two consecutive terms. She is a committed collector of Japanese woodblock prints and was trained a docent at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its role at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.