News
Ronald O. Perelman, chairman and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. and a member of the Business School’s Board of Overseers, has pledged a landmark gift of $100 million to Columbia Business School. It joins Class of 1969 alumnus Henry R. Kravis’s $100 million contribution as the largest in the School’s history.
With the primary goal of building capacity to recruit and fund scholars and students dedicated to social and civic engagement in Brazil, the Lemann Foundation has signed a multi-million dollar agreement with Columbia University for the benefit of several related initiatives. The gift is Columbia’s largest ever for Brazil-related efforts and is the largest gift from a Brazilian donor.
Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger announced today that Mortimer B. Zuckerman has pledged $200 million to endow a Mind Brain Behavior Institute to support interdisciplinary neuroscience research and discovery by scholars across the University. Later this morning, Zuckerman and Bollinger will attend a university forum featuring the Institute's founding co-directors, Thomas Jessell and Nobel laureates Richard Axel and Eric Kandel, to discuss plans for the Institute. They will be joined at the announcement by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Columbia University has announced that Delhi-based entrepreneur Sharik Currimbhoy has pledged a generous gift of $12.12 million. The gift is broad in scope and will span multiple schools at the university. It will support research and fellowships with a focus on India and emerging markets. The gift is timed to coincide with the auspicious moment of 12:12 p.m. on Wednesday, December 12, 2012 — 12:12 on 12-12-12. This is the largest gift from an alumnus in India to Columbia.
A group of fourteen Engineering and College alumni has pledged $825,000 to create a scholarship fund in memory of Columbia benefactor Z.Y. Fu, who passed away in August 2011. The Z.Y. Fu Memorial Scholarship will provide full, four-year scholarships for undergraduate students at The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Columbia Alumni Leaders Weekend, "Powered by Networks," was held October 12-13, offering the opportunity for alumni to share how networks in every aspect of their lives – personally and professionally – can be leveraged to improve and strengthen Columbia connections.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a $10 million collaborative project to develop systems for monitoring agriculture, the environment, and human wellbeing in Africa – while another gift from the Glaser Progress Foundation advances the work of the Earth Institute's Access Project in Rwanda.
The Law School is closing its most successful year of fundraising ever, with more than $51 million in gifts and pledges from alumni and other organizations.
The Law School's Vale Center on Sustainable Investments, in partnership with the Earth Institute, has just received a new gift of more than $6.25 million to continue its work and initiatives. Vale, a Brazilian multinational diversified metals and mining corporation, created the Center with an initial gift of $1.5 million in 2008.
The Helena Rubinstein Foundation has created a $2 million endowed professorship in support of the advancement of women in science at Columbia; Virginia W. Cornish '91CC, Professor of Chemistry, is the inaugural appointee of this chair. Working at the interface of chemistry and biology, Dr. Cornish's laboratory brings together organic chemistry and DNA technology to expand the synthetic capabilities of living cells.
The School of Nursing is the recipient of a $500,000 grant from the Helene Fuld Health Trust. The grant will fund financial aid for students enrolled in the School's accelerated second degree program. Of the total $500,000 grant, $250,000 will be held as an endowment fund and the balance will be expended on a current basis.
Tricia Seifert
Director, Office of Strategic Donor Relations and Stewardship
Columbia Alumni Center
622 West 113th Street
New York, NY 10025
(212) 851-7958
ps2638@columbia.edu
