By Teya Vitu
Gannett News Service

TUCSON, Ariz. - Business and science go together about as well as garlic and a romantic evening, right?

The mixture works at the University of Arizona, where the College of Science is in its second year of offering a master's degree program for graduate students in applied and industrial physics, mathematical sciences and applied biosciences.

This master's degree is designed for science majors not headed for a Ph.D. and subsequent careers in academia. Instead, these graduates are bound for industry.

The student scientists take crash courses in businesses in order to become hybrid specialists bridging the gap between a company's bean-counters and tech wizards.

"You take science students who want to take their science and apply it to other fields," said Alaina Levine, special projects director at the College of Science.

"That's where you get a mathematician working on Wall Street. That's where you get a physicist working on an entertainment computer or a biologist working on public policy issues for a lobbying group."

Pascal Herzer, who majored in molecular and cellular biology, loves science, but not the research that goes with it.

The program gives him a chance to stay at the edge of the research world.

"The simple fact is that business persons are not familiar with science and scientists are not familiar with business," Mr. Herzer said. "The combination of both would make me more marketable."

Mr. Herzer interned at the UA Office of Technology Transfer,and now works there as a graduate licensing assistant. He said managing faculty intellectual property illustrates how the science-business master's degree comes into play.

"To do so, I have to have a science background and a business background at the same time," Herzer said. "I'm working with faculty, patent attorneys and marketing people."

Michelle Kidd, who majored in mathematics and minored in economics, saw herself headed for industry rather than academia even before learning about the program. She interned this summer as a forecast analyst at the Intuit call center in Tucson, Ariz.

"Normally, they look for MBAs," Ms. Kidd said. "I was able to bring a lot more math into it. If I would have had just a math degree, they would have never let me in the door."

The College of Science collaborated with the Eller College of Business and Public Administration to tailor two business courses specifically for science graduates. One course introduces science students to business concepts such as accounting, human resources, marketing, business ethics and intellectual property, and has them apply their learning to a company. The second course tackles components of project management.