A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:
Brookings Institution
The Washington billionaire David Rubenstein pledged $20 million, in part to establish the David M. Rubenstein Fellowships, a program for early and midcareer scholars and other experts. Fellows will be appointed for two years to conduct research and analysis and generate policy ideas and recommendations on key governance challenges of the 21st century. The first class will be in place by September. The money will also support the institution’s Foreign Policy Research program. The $20 million will be paid over six years. Mr. Rubenstein is a co-founder of the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm, and a co-chair of the Brookings Board of Trustees.
University of California at Los Angeles
Henry and Susan Samueli donated $20 million through their Samueli Foundation to increase the diversity of undergraduate students in engineering and computer science. The money will back a new program at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science that will provide scholarships and internships for as many as 50 freshman students annually.Mr. Samueli is chief technical officer at Avago Technologies, with manufactures semiconductors. He earned three degrees from UCLA: a bachelor’s in 1975, a master’s in ’76, and a doctorate in ’80. He was a member of the engineering faculty in 1991, when he co-founded Broadcom Limited with one of his students, Henry Nicholas.The company was acquired by Avago last year for $37 billion.
Iona College
James and Anne Marie Hynes gave $15 million to create the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The center will offer programs for students in any major, and the money will help create new majors and minors in entrepreneurship and endow new faculty positions. Mr. Hynes founded COLT, PLC, the first private telecom provider in Europe, and co-founded Inteliquent, a telecommunications company. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Iona in 1969 and is chairman of the Board of Trustees. Ms. Hynes is a lawyer and a member of the Hynes Institute design team.
University of Washington
Larry Dalton and his wife, Nicole Boand, pledged $12 million to the Department of Chemistry to establish the Dalton Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemistry and endow two professorships and a departmental support fund.Mr. Dalton founded Lumera Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of optoelectronic devices, which combine electronics and light.He joined the university’s chemistry department in 1998, and his research helped provide to the foundation new discoveries in optoelectronics. His work also helped create what would become the UW Clean Energy Institute.
Arizona State University
Entomologists Charlie and Lois O’Brien donated $2.5 million to endow professorships in the School of Life Sciences, and their collection of more than 1.25 million insects including 1 million weevils, which, although sometimes harmful to agricultural crops, can also be helpful. The insect collection is one of the largest in the world and is valued at $9.9 million, according to university officials.The couple met at the University of Arizona in the 1950s when Mr. O’Brien was earning a master’s degree and Ms. O’Brien was a student in a class he was teaching. They went on to earn Ph.D.s and conducted research around the world. Mr. O’Brien was a professor at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University for 33 years.
University of West Florida
An anonymous donor gave more than $3 million to establish an endowment for scholarships for immigrants and refugees.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
Corrections: A previous version of this article said David Rubenstein had made an outright gift to the Brookings Institution; it was actually a pledge that will be given over six years. The piece also neglected to say that part of the money will go toward the institution’s Foreign Policy Research program. In addition, the article initially reported incorrectly that Charlie and Lois O’Brien met at Arizona State University rather than the University of Arizona.
