Bioscience award winner has passion for teaching, life

Posted 9/11/14

David R. Vito of Warwick, assistant professor of biology at the Community College of Rhode Island, is one of four 2014 Rhode Island Bioscience Award Winners. The awards are made by Tech Collective, …

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Bioscience award winner has passion for teaching, life

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David R. Vito of Warwick, assistant professor of biology at the Community College of Rhode Island, is one of four 2014 Rhode Island Bioscience Award Winners. The awards are made by Tech Collective, Rhode Island’s bioscience and IT industry association.

The awards are designed exclusively to honor accomplishments, innovations, and leadership within the state’s medical device, research and development, pharmaceuticals, laboratories, production, design, and related bioscience sectors.

In its second year, four bioscience champions have been honored in the areas of consulting and testing, digital health, and education. Named outstanding bioscience professionals or entrepreneurs are: Dr. John D. Jarrell, PhD, PE – president, Materials Science Associates and founder, BioIntraface, Inc.;

Dr. Greg Paquette, professor and director of biotechnology programs, University of Rhode Island; Megan L. Ranney, MD MPH – director, Emergency Digital Health Innovation program; assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital / Alpert Medical School, Brown University; and Vito. He is the recipient the community leader award, which is presented to an individual, organization, or company advancing the bioscience industry forward through advocacy, education/mentorship, workforce development, youth engagement, and/or leadership.

In addition to his role as assistant professor of biology at CCRI, Vito is the coordinator and co-principal investigator at the Amgen Biotech Experience Program at the University of Rhode Island.

He has a passion for the program and the high school and middle school teachers he works with, which is reflective of his own involvement as a high school teacher in North Attleboro.

Vito ran the school’s science fair for 20 years, bringing it to a level where students went on to win regional and national recognition and the fair earned the distinction of being among the best. One of his students was the winner of the Intel Talent Search, a $100,000 award that won both the student and Vito acclaim with the naming of asteroids after them. The school’s science fair was named after Vito and he was also recognized with a $25,000 Milken Educator award.

In 2006, Vito left North Attleboro and was teaching part-time at CCRI, which became full-time a year later.

“I’ve tried to bring biotechnology into the classroom,” he said.

His efforts with the Amgen program are doing that. In the last year, the program reached 55 high and middle school science teachers and 3,000 students in 26 schools. Under the program, teachers go through a training session after which they are provided kits used to conduct experiments in the classroom. Vito described the kits as providing state-of-the-art equipment worth more than $20,000 enabling students, for example, to use enzymes to cut DNA from chromosomes.

“The teachers I work with are the most dynamic I’ve seen” he said. “They are dedicated and hardworking.”

Vito is accustomed to being busy.

His wife died in 2003 and he raised the family’s six children. As for when he might slow down, maybe retire, Vito, who had been reached Saturday morning in his classroom where he was catching up on paperwork for the phone interview, said, “I’ve been busy like this.”

Apparently he doesn’t intend to slow down.

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