The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

Dear Colleagues and Friends,
October 1, 2005
Welcome to the 2005 SRA International meeting in Milwaukee! And welcome to the 2005 SRA
Symposium. I grew up on the East Coast in the inner city. I first encountered the City of Milwaukee
in undergraduate and graduate studies. Over the years, I became deeply enamored of the marvelously
rich cross-cultural heritage of this city and the Fox River Valley. Over my student years, I
often felt caught up in the cultural “swirl” between such diverse traits as Milwaukee’s stalwart German
heritage combined with the deep and mysterious richness of the Native American communities
of Wisconsin. This wonderful mix of cultures provides our 2005 Symposium with a powerful
mix of metaphors. Let me explain.
Research administration is an executive profession with a distinct scholarly and professional body
of knowledge. Today, our profession is seeing swift new challenges and opportunities. Indeed we
are on the march. The drumbeat of our march resonates with a stalwart strength so well characterized
by the heritage of this proud city. Our drumbeat also resonates with the rich cross-cultural
mix of this extraordinary region. Like the total heritage of the Milwaukee cultural geography,
research administration has a rich and stalwart tradition that is today being stretched by new
challenges and opportunities for research and research management. Let me suggest, then, that
our coming to Milwaukee is a highly poetic moment in time for us to celebrate the 2005 Symposium.
Here we cherish and advance our SRA Symposium Tradition of scholarly inquiry and the
exploration of emerging needs and services for our investigators and institutions. The 2005 Symposium
mirrors in a marvelously “coincidental way” the diverse geography of research administration
with the rich cultural heritage of our proud hosts in Milwaukee.
In this wonderful city with its marvelous cross-cultural historical heritage, we bring our rich tradition
of Symposium scholarship for the advancement of our body of knowledge and the development
of this profession we call research administration. Exploring and adapting with strength and
respect for the rich mystery of what we do, the 2005 Symposium is dedicated this year as always
to furthering what we do to assist those whose genius is itself dedicated to the progress of human
quality of life. May our time together enrich and stretch us to do more and be more for those who
rely upon our Tradition of Genius and Industry as research administrators.
With warm personal regards,
Dr. Edward F. Gabriele
Symposium Program Director &
2005 Symposium Chair