FOREWORD
THE SCHWEPPE FOUNDATION
CAREER DEVELOPMENT AWARD IN ACADEMIC MEDICINE

The Schweppe Foundation was established in the State of Illinois in 1947 by John S. Schweppe, M.D. as a memorial to Dr. Schweppe's parents, Charles H. and Laura Shedd Schweppe, who had a special interest in medical affairs and, in particular, in supporting medical education.

For several decades, Dr. Schweppe, ably assisted by his wife, Lydia E. Schweppe, and other members of the Foundation's Board of Directors, shepherded the Foundation's award-making activities. Dr. and Mrs. Schweppe believed strongly in the importance of providing support for highly promising young individuals who were in the early stages of their careers in academic medicine. The uncertainty as to the level of financial support that medical schools would be able to provide worthy young men and women eager to join the ranks of academic medicine, coupled with the vagaries of the availability of outside funding of such untested individuals, was of serious concern to Dr. and Mrs. Schweppe and to the Foundation's Board of Directors. Dr. and Mrs. Schweppe also believed that Chicago area medical schools must have continuing access to a pool of the brightest and best trained men and women with M.D. and/or Ph.D. degrees.

Believing that young graduate physicians and individuals who had recently received their Ph.Ds. were in need of nurturing and sustenance during the early stages of their medical research and teaching careers, Dr. Schweppe and the Board of Directors of the Foundation offered the Schweppe Foundation Career Development Awards . These awards provided such young investigators the secure “protected time” to develop their knowledge and teaching and research skills -- free or substantially free from time-consuming administrative duties and other chores. Moreover, these awards enabled Chicago area medical schools to invest in talented individuals of promise, many of whom in turn would provide a pool from which to draw exceptionally trained faculty for Chicago area medical schools.

Shortly before his death in 1996, Dr. Schweppe affirmed his desire to ensure the continuation of these Career Development Awards that would enhance the research and teaching abilities of outstanding young investigators and teachers. Only a few months after Dr. Schweppe died, Lydia E. Schweppe passed away. Dr. and Mrs. Schweppe made substantial bequests to the Foundation.

Career Development Awards are limited to applicants from the following medical schools and their affiliated research centers:

• Loyola University/Chicago
• Northwestern University
• Rosalind Franklin University
• Rush University Medical Center
• The University of Chicago
• The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
• The University of Illinois at Chicago

The principal objective of the Foundation's Career Development Award Program continues to be to foster and support the development of outstanding individuals (affiliated with qualifying medical schools) in the early stages of their careers in the area of academic medicine, with the expectation that many of these individuals will then have long and highly productive careers in academic medicine and that their teaching and research during their careers will inure to the benefit of the medical schools with which they affiliate and the public at large.