Our History
1971 – Our Company is Founded
Founded in Pennsylvania by Karl R. Zurn, M.E.E, Med Associates specialized in designing and performing safety inspection programs for hospital equipment and manufacturing physiological instruments and supplies, such as EKG amplifiers, data acquisition and signal conditioning devices, physiological electrodes, and electrode pastes and gels.
1973 – Headquarters Moves to Vermont
Med Associates relocates to the rural town of Fairfield, Vermont
1983 – A Growing Company
Med Associates purchases the assets of a company called LVB. LVB designed and manufactured an electronic interface that was used to control operant conditioning behavioral experiments. This marked a turning point, where Med Associates now shifted focus into the animal behavior instruments market.
1984 – Our First Control System
Med Associates manufactures a computer-controlled behavioral experiment control systems based on the TRS-80 microprocessor.
1985 – Interface Advancements and before Med State Notation
Med Associates adapts the TRS-80 interface system to the Apple II computer. Also starts providing ready-to-use behavioral procedures that were written in assembly language, similar to our current-day Med State Notation™ procedures, only the programs could not be modified unless the user knew assembly programming.
1986 – Making Procedures Customizable
Med Associates incorporates a set of BASIC statements to allow researchers to easily modify behavioral procedures to suit their needs.
1988 – License Issued for Med-PC
Med Associates sells the first license of the popular Med-PC behavioral control software that runs experimental protocols designed with Med State Notation.
1989 – Paper Published on Med-PC
Dr. Thomas Tatham and Karl Zurn publish a paper (Tatham, T.A. and Zurn K.R. The Med-PC experimental apparatus programming system. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 21(2): 294-302, 1989) describing the Med-PC behavioral control system and the syntax of Med State Notation.
1997 – Bigger and Better
Med Associates constructs a 12,000 sq. ft. addition to the manufacturing plant and established a professional machine shop and cabinet making shop.
1998 – More Room for Manufacturing
Med Associates constructs a 4,000 sq. ft. mezzanine to generate more space in its manufacturing plant.
2001 – The Science Center
Med Associates acquired a 23,000 sq. ft. facility in the St. Albans Town Industrial Park in St. Albans, Vermont. This facility would be termed the Med Associates Science Center. Over the next several years, it would be developed to contain an 8,000 sq. ft. vivarium, 7,500 sq. ft. laboratory facility, engineering offices, and a prototype machine shop. Also an addition was completed at the Georgia, Vermont plant to house our growing Sales and Administrative offices.
2003 – Welcome Dr. Gerald Herrera, Ph.D.
Karl Zurn’s son-in-law, Gerald Herrera, Ph.D., decides to join Med Associates full-time. Dr. Herrera obtained a Ph.D. in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics from The University of Vermont. Dr. Herrera works to develop the vision of the Med Associates Science Center becoming the major research and development hub for the company, incorporating key principles from basic science into the product development strategies.
2004 – Still Growing…
Two major building projects were completed at our Georgia, Vermont plant. A 12,000 sq. ft. expansion of the main plant would house our inventory, and a 15,000 sq. ft. building was erected to serve as our new machine shop, further expanding our manufacturing capabilities.
2005 – And Growing…
The Georgia, Vermont facility was again expanded to gain additional manufacturing space.
2006 – Introducing the Med Associates Short Courses in Neuroscience and the Launch of a new R&D Company, Catamount Research and Development
Med Associates launches the popular Short Courses in Neuroscience workshop series at our Vermont Science Center. This series continues to be popular, and we conduct several courses each year, including Med-PC training courses at our facility, at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting, and at the biennial Federation of European Neuroscience Societies meeting.
Karl Zurn and Gerald Herrera form a new company called Catamount Research and Development whose mission is to conduct new product research and development. Today, Catamount R&D designs, develops, and manufactures several physiological product lines, in addition to supporting and the Med Associates behavioral product lines.
Also, a 10,000 sq. ft. addition was completed at the Georgia, Vermont plant to house our shipping/receiving department, as well as mechanical assembly operations.
2009 – A New Partnership and Med-PC Reaches a Milestone
Med Associates announces a collaboration with Noldus in which Med Associates would sell Ethovision software as a video tracking solution with our mazes and arenas. In addition, Noldus would offer Med Associates mazes and arenas to provide a complete solution to the end user.
Med Associates sells the 2000th license of Med-PC
2011 – A New Website
Med Associates launches its new website, featuring expanded product information, refined searching abilities, current news and events, and a customer portal to provide on-line customer support.
2022 – Another Website Redesign!
A new website to match the advancements in website usability, including:
- Drop-down menus to select features and variants of similar products
- Package contents detailed in quick-reference table format
- Filter results by either research area or species
- Recommended items linked at the bottom of each product page
- Much easier to locate our resources such as manuals, brochures, etc.
- Updated dynamic design for viewing on both desktop and mobile devices
- ...and more!