In a 1994 alumni profile story, Dr. David Milligan (MS, ’65; PhD, ’67) expressed his belief that hard work and the rational application of science would continue to pay off in years to come.
“In the future, industry will be scrambling to hire high quality talent. There is a tremendous need for more scientifically literate students evolving through the system,” said Milligan, who was Abbott Laboratory's Corporate Vice President for Pharmaceutical Products Research and Development when he was quoted in the School of Chemical Sciences Alumni News.
Now, exactly 30 years later, Milligan has established a graduate fellowship for students in chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to help meet that same need for well-educated scientists by supporting students as they earn their PhDs in chemistry.
In a recent interview, Milligan said it was also important to him to establish the Dr. David V. Milligan Graduate Fellowship in Chemistry to help the U. of I. attract the highest quality new graduate students in chemistry. The fellowship will be awarded for the first time in fall 2024.
After graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1963 from Princeton University with an AB degree in Chemistry, Milligan said it was a NASA scholarship that convinced him to choose the chemistry graduate program at Illinois rather than Wisconsin. At Illinois, he discovered an excellent research environment in the chemistry graduate program, where he said he was stimulated and challenged, worked hard, and received excellent support from his advisor, Prof. Stan Smith.
“Obtaining my PhD from a high-quality Chemistry department allowed me many opportunities,” said Milligan, who also took several business courses at Illinois. “This took a while to get approved, but it did provide me with an advantage of having an MBA-like background which became very valuable later and why I was comfortable putting sales and marketing on my CV.”
Using his scientific knowledge and business acumen, Milligan built a very successful career in science-based business, first at 3M and eventually Abbott Laboratories, where he retired as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer after a long career that included many years in pharmaceutical research and development.
According to Milligan, “his responsibilities ranged over the entire R&D spectrum in support of a growing pharmaceutical business, from the discovery of new chemical entities and the basic chemistry and biology that enable the generation of clinical candidates, through the clinical development program, filing product license applications, and support of marketing efforts.”
As a kid, Milligan said he was always interested in learning how things worked and discovered that chemistry was fun after getting a chemistry set for Christmas.
“I bought various chemicals at the local drug store allowing me to expand on experiments that were fun to watch. I did these experiments in my basement,” Milligan said.
In graduate school, Milligan knew he was interested in the business, management, and marketing side of science-based business. After graduating, he said he was given the unusual treatment of interviewing with the head of R&D at 3M, who offered him a choice of areas within the company, and he chose the Photographic Products Division R&D run by George Rathmann.
“This totally changed my career path and my long-term career success. George became a mentor, and I followed him from 3M to a division of Litton Industries and on to Abbott,” Milligan said.
Milligan’s first role at 3M was market research on their investment in X-Ray film production, and after six years, he moved on to developing a dental equipment and photo processing business for Litton Dental Products and its successor, Xonics Medical Systems. The primary customer was Siemens dental products division, which used Litton’s ultrasonic scalers for cleaning teeth.
In 1979, Litton’s was acquired by another organization. Milligan contacted his mentor, Rathmann, who was now at Abbott Laboratories. Milligan was hired to manage a group responsible for future diagnostic products. Six months later he was running the cancer diagnostics business unit, which developed a new test for a cancer marker, known as CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen} at the time.
The success of CEA was one of many that facilitated Abbott’s growth into a worldwide leader in diagnostics by the early 90s, and by 1994, Milligan was promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer.
His career also includes serving as director or chairman of many public and private company boards, including Caliper Life Sciences, a publicly held pharmaceutical and biotechnology company; ICOS, a publicly held pharmaceutical company acquired by Eli Lilly in 2008; Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by Pfizer; Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company acquired by GlaxoSmithKline; Pathway Diagnostics Corporation, a privately-held diagnostics company acquired by Quest Diagnostics, Inc.; and Maxia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company acquired by Incyte Corporation.
He was also an advisor at Bay City Capital LLC, a life sciences investment firm, a board member of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded company started by Bay City Capital, a director and chairman of Air Answers, a private company focused on detecting allergens and pathogens via a unique air sampling device, and served as chairman of Ekatra, a private company utilizing information technology to aggregate data and enable rapid correction of methane emissions, storage tank leaks or overfills.
Now retired and working as a consultant, Milligan said looking back on his life and his career that took him all over the country and the world, what makes him most proud is his family. He and his wife, Sue, have enjoyed watching their children grow up and pursue successful careers and have children of their own.
“My wife and I both grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and first dated when she was a freshman, and I was a junior at Evanston High School. She and I worked together to get through tough times in the early days and now have a very successful family including our grandchildren,” he said.