The University of California at Berkeley will use a $50 million gift from an anonymous donor to build one of two new campus buildings to house scientists researching medical innovations, the San Francisco Examiner reports.
The gift will boost the new $500 million Health Sciences Initiative, which will bring together physical and biological scientists working in mathematics, engineering, physics and computer science fields, the Examiner reports. The group will study problems in biology and medicine.
The two new buildings will replace older buildings on the Berkeley campus. Warren Hall, which is home to the School of Public Health, will be replaced by a building that houses public health, neuroscience and disease research. Stanley Hall, a laboratory, will be replaced with a center for molecular engineering and bioengineering.
UC-Berkeley's Health Sciences program has garnered support from at least 250 faculty member who have signed up to participate.
The $50 million, the largest gift ever to Berkeley, was made this past summer and is added to the $50 million in private funds and $24 million in state money the university had already collected.
A $20 million gift came from William V. Power, co-founder of the insurance brokerage firm Power and Dalziel. That contribution was to support the neuroscience portion of the program.
The estate of the late tennis star Helen Wills Moody, an alumna of the university, donated $10 million. The new facility will bear her name.
Another anonymous gift of $10 million was previously received, as was a $10 million donation from Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder, who gave the money to support the engineering portion of the project.
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