Tuesday, March 1, 2011 I

TechNews

campus@technewsiit.com

RYAN KAMPHU IS
UTSAV GAN DHI 7

Sidney Katz Studio symbolizes alumni generosity

By Alex Miller
STAFF WRITER

A large crowd gathered last Thursday, Feb,
ruary 17th, to celebrate the rededication of the
WIIT studio as the AI Sidney Katz Radio Stu,
dioi After making a very generous donation to
wards the dayetoeday operations of the studio,
the school decided to honor him through the
studio A brief ceremony included the unveil,
ing of the new studio lettering and an inter,
view of Sid in the WIIT studio itself

During Sidney Katz’ time as an under,
graduate at IIT, he worked as an engineering
technician, partitime math tutor, and hosted
a program on WIIT At this time, the studio
was still located within the basement of a frae
ternity house of campus After graduating in
1962 with a degree in electrical engineering, he
continued on to work as an engineering tech,
nician at Filmotype Corpi He also acted as a
patent examiner within the US Patent Office
in Washington DC Returning to school in
1966, Katz obtained a law degree from George
Washington University and entered his legal
career as a law clerk for Hurvitz and Rose
Moving back to Chicago, he became a associe
ate attorney, and then a partner at various Chi,
cago law firms

For twentyefive years as a coefounder of
Welsh & Katz Ltdi, Sidney Katz used his knowl
edge obtained at IIT to fight for the protection
of intellectual property, especially that regard,
ing high technology, biotech, and pharmaceue
tical fieldsr They merged with Husch Blackwell
LLP in 2008, and since then Mr Katz has been
primarily focused on client counseling, license
ing, and litigation in all aspects of prop erty law
This means he uses his experience within the
US Patent Office to help clients with patents,

 

trademarks, and copyrights He is especially
well known within the business for his “protece
tion of computer programs and video games
under copyright laws?’

As seen throughout his extensive career,
Sid maintains his fond recollections of his
beginnings at HT, using knowledge obtained
throughout his undergraduate career to aid in
the protection of patents around the nation As
many of our alumni do, he expressed his rec,
ognition of the education he received nearly
fifty years ago by donating generously to help
the students receive the same opportunities he
did as an undergraduate

“In the past there’s been lab renamings and
other such rededications around campus," ref
marks Lauren Reising, the manager of Devel
opment and Alumni Communications “The
biggest gifts coming in are scholarships, and
we’re always looking for support with that
Every now and then there are generous donae
tions like this, sometimes with a specific thing
they want to donate to" In the past year, the
lower level of Galvin was renamed after a simi
lar donation from Cheri Schmittr “In general,
there are one or two renaming ceremonies a
year" These commend extremely generous
donations from alumni, often with the intent
of helping a certain specific aspect, such as lab
equipment or helping keep the radio station
alivei

With the majority of scholarships being
provided by alumni donations, the importance
of recognizing their generosity and continued
support cannot be stressed enoughi Small doe
nations combine with other small donations to
help students attend this university in hopes of
achieving all of their goals

[Photos courtesy Alex Miller]

RESERVATION
DISCOVER

CAMPUS

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, March 3, 7pm @ the MTCC auditorium

Free screening, free pizza!

 

LOSE ALL. GAIN EVERYTHING.

Brought to you by
The Office of Spiritual Life and Service Learning