An entrepreneurial Wisconsin couple recently donated $1 million to their alma matter to support a $116 million STEM facility being built on the campus.
The gift from husband and wife Jeff and Kristi Cernohous to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for its Science and Technology Innovation Center will result in an endowment "from which instrumentation, endowed faculty, student scholarships and internships may be funded," according to the university.
Jeff Cernohous founded Interfacial, a Prescott-based tech and production company that specializes in making advanced plastic materials and manufacturing processes. He and Kristi both have chemistry degrees from the university.
“Modernizing aging learning environments is an absolute must but transforming the student experience is equally important,” said Jeff Cernohous in a statement. “We would like to see this gift used to create an ecosystem where UWRF students, faculty and industry are engaged in meaningful scientific collaboration year-round.”
Full construction funding for the SciTech project is included in the $1.2 billion University of Wisconsin System capital budget request for the 2021-'23 biennium, according to the university.
The new facility is being designed to support internships and incubation of joint university-business projects. It will also provide resources for idea development, including prototyping, material and chemical analysis, research projects, computer-aided design, 3-D printing and public access to materials and equipment for regional innovators and entrepreneurs.
The university received $2 million in planning and design funds from the state in June 2019 to fund partial design of the SciTech project. The facility is being designed by Madison-based architecture firm BWBR.
“This is not about the building, this is about an environment that induces collaboration and blurs the lines between academia and industry,” Jeff Cernohous said. “SciTech is a unique opportunity for UW-River Falls to help students gain hands-on experience and knowledge of a what a future STEM career actually looks like once they are in the workforce, very early in their tenure at UWRF.”
