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Young Alumnus Puts His Energy And Resources Where He Sees Potential
Maybe it began when he started hitting the ski slopes at age 3. For whatever reason, Eric Heinz (BS '01, bioengineering) thrives on risk and challenge, and he's lived by that theme in both his work and his charitable giving.
A flourishing career has landed Heinz as a senior bioengineer at a promising startup company in Silicon Valley, but he remembers the people and places that helped get him there. Heinz gives regularly to his alma mater, and he extended his support by listing the University's bioengineering programs as a beneficiary on his life insurance policy.
"When I was a student I benefited a lot with programs they had in place in bioengineering," he says, adding that he wanted better funding for programs he felt were critical to students in the field.
At the same time, Heinz realizes that state funding has been generally declining while costs have been increasing. So he gives annually to the University, in hopes of easing the financial pressure and forging a long and successful relationship.
Heinz urges other young alumni to follow his example and start giving back even though "we haven't sold our companies or made our fortunes yet."
"Give what you can," he says. "You may think you are only one alum, giving $100 a year. But what if you are one of 100,000? That really starts to add up."
His path to bioengineering began in the fifth grade, when surgeons corrected a bone disorder that had afflicted him. Later, when he arrived at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1998, he came as an inveterate tinkerer in electronics, fascinated by math and science. But the memory of doctors solving his problem had left its mark, and he entered the pre-med program.
Heinz discovered bioengineering, then a budding, specialized curricula unit in LAS that had not yet even become a department (it would later, in the College of Engineering). A young, relatively unknown program with great potential? That suited Heinz just fine.
"It was really early and I like that because I get to be part of something when it's really young," Heinz says. "Maybe what I did in school helped shape the program to what it is today."
The program certainly shaped him, as after graduation Heinz went on to be a bioengineer at Medtronic, where his work on spinal implants got him listed as an inventor on more than 30 patent applications filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He joined Benvenue Medical in Silicon Valley this past spring.
He keeps thinking of his college days for reasons practical and sentimental. Heinz says that skills he learned in his "Human Anatomy" class, for example, come into use every day as he designs spinal implants. He also sees bioengineering continuing to grow at the U of I, which affirms that he's been part of something important.
"I want to be one of those alums who continues to be affiliated with the University by giving time and resources. I want to see bioengineering grow into a world-renowned program," Heinz says.