Research park sponsors student recruitment fair

Companies at the rapidly expanding University Research Park hope to better recruit the talent available at their doorstep with a first-ever student job fair on Monday, Jan. 29, at the Memorial Union’s Great Hall.

The event, running from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., will help high-growth companies at the park make stronger connections with undergraduate and graduate students. Mark Bugher, director of the west Madison park, says employee recruitment is a formidable challenge for many of the park’s technology-based firms.

“We have a very high employment rate in Madison, and it’s especially competitive for companies with a highly skilled workforce,” Bugher says. “Our goal is to make UW–Madison students better aware of the quality job opportunities that exist out here.”

The Research Park has 88 companies with more than 2,500 employees, with some of the companies poised for fast growth. Third Wave Technologies, a leading manufacturer of genome analysis products, is hiring an average of one new employee each day, Bugher says. Another biotechnology company, PanVera Corp., has 75 employees and plans to roughly double in size over the next year.

Bugher says the 15 to 20 companies attending the fair will have a variety of opportunities for students, including full- and part-time job openings and summer internships. The park has a mix of companies in the biotechnology, high technology and professional trade sectors, and students might be surprised to see “some of the benefits of Silicon valley right here in Madison.”

One of the park’s primary missions is to help commercialize the innovations of UW–Madison faculty and staff. Tom Mulhern, public information specialist with the park, says another long-term goal of the park is to establish a more formal conduit between Research Park companies and prospective UW–Madison graduates.

Companies planning to attend the fair include Third Wave and PanVera; the information technology companies Sepherion Corp and Genetics Computer Group; the U.S. Geological Survey and the distance-learning firm UW Learning Innovations.

Any UW–Madison student is welcome to attend. Free refreshments will be available. For more information, contact Mulhern, (608) 263-3008.