Columbia Global is pleased to introduce nine scholars who have been awarded the 2024-2025 Columbia Global Emerging Scholars Fellowship for early-career displaced scholars whose work has been disrupted by conflict or crisis in their home countries. The one-year fellowship offers support and resources for scholars to continue their studies, enhance their research capabilities, broaden their professional networks, and advance their careers in academia.

Nearly a decade after first stepping foot on the Columbia campus as a School of Professional Studies student, Master of Science in Actuarial Science alumna Claire Li (‘15SPS) returned to Lewisohn Hall to reflect on her experience and share her motivations around making a generous gift to the program.

“We want to repay the help we received.”

With their most recent gift, devoted alumni Dr. Roy and Mrs. Diana Vagelos have demonstrated their steadfast dedication to Columbia and lifelong commitment to improving human health and wellbeing. Thanks to their visionary generosity, the University will establish the Roy and Diana Vagelos Institute for Basic Medical Science at Columbia University, securing Columbia’s leadership in biomedical science research and education.

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons announced the David Koch Jr. Glomerular Kidney Center to advance clinical research, physician education and training, and care for patients with glomerular diseases, which impair the kidney’s filters. The center, established with a $20 million gift from the David Koch Jr. Foundation, will build on Columbia’s groundbreaking work to develop innovative diagnostics and treatments for these rare kidney diseases.

When Grace Rodriguez ’86LW died after a short illness at the age of 60 in 2022, her husband, John J. Sullivan ’85LW, their three children, and her mother were overwhelmed by the number of people who shared stories about Rodriguez’s role in their professional and personal lives as a counselor and confidante.

Columbia University and its Mailman School of Public Health recently celebrated the appointment of Virginia Rauh as the inaugural Jane and Alan Batkin Professor in Child Health and Well-Being. The endowed professorship was made possible by the generosity of long-time children’s health advocates Alan Batkin, chair emeritus of Columbia Mailman’s Board of Advisors, and his wife Jane Batkin, a child psychologist.

Together, Columbia alumni and friends of the Department of Economics established a professorship to honor the late Robert A. Mundell, a towering figure in the department and international economics at large. Martín Uribe, an eminent scholar in international macroeconomics - the field in which Mundell made his greatest contributions - has been appointed as its first incumbent. 

NEW YORK – With new funding from Alan Kanzer, Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute has launched the Kanzer Postdoctoral Fellows program to recruit extraordinary, early-career scientists pursuing pioneering research. The program stands out by tying the appointments to major topics in mind, brain and behavior, such as behavioral neuroscience and neurogenetics, and fellows are encouraged to carry out their research under the mentorship of more than one faculty member.

Daniel S. J. Choy, MD, Columbia College ’44 and VP&S ’49, and Rhea B. Choy included Columbia University in their estate planning to provide critical funding for Columbia University. This contribution will make a great impact at Columbia across multiple programs including the college and at the medical school. Their generosity will help fund scholarships, research and clinical care within the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery and the broader medical center, and programs at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) today announced the launch of a new center for pediatric cardiovascular innovation, made possible through a gift by Lawrence Neubauer. The mission of the new center is to improve outcomes for patients through groundbreaking research and care and to define the next cures for and future practice in congenital heart disease (CHD)—here and across the world.

With a transformational gift of $6.5 million, the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) will launch its second decade of excellence in clinical care, research, and education programs for people with cerebral palsy (CP).

Columbia University has launched an initiative to honor Columbia alumna and internationally renowned Italian Renaissance art historian Lilian Armstrong (1936-2021) with a fund in her name to support graduate students in Venice at Casa Muraro. A passionate and prolific scholar, Lilian authored or co-authored several books and more than sixty scholarly papers, and was the recipient of many honors, fellowships, and grants.

Columbia University today announced the establishment of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health at Columbia University. The center will catalyze the scientific innovation and clinical implementation of precision medicine to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness.

With a transformational gift from the Bezos Family Foundation, Columbia University will launch the Center for the Transition to Parenthood in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Supported by the most advanced scientific knowledge in the field, the center seeks to reinvent prenatal care, address the mental health of parents, improve the overall health of infants, and promote family well-being.

With the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the critical importance of biomedical research and new questions being raised about society’s capacity to generate world-changing scientific breakthroughs^[1], Roy and Diana Vagelos have made a $175 million gift to Columbia University to address this need.

The $17.5 million gift, the largest single commitment in the history of Columbia Law, will help support the design and construction of the Law Library renovation.

Albert E. “Al” Cinelli ’55 switched course in midlife, from general counsel to business owner, when he bought a struggling fiber optic company in Kentucky and nurtured it to profitability and growth. After 15 years, he sold it—and promptly started another. His success in business, he says, was made possible by the legal training he received at Columbia Law School, which gave him not only the skills but also the confidence to achieve his goals.

A transformational gift from the Carol and Gene Ludwig Family Foundation will support the launch of a neurodegenerative disease research center at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The foundation’s gift will establish The Carol and Gene Ludwig Center for Research on Neurodegeneration to support research on the underlying biological and genetic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders and to discover innovative and more effective, targeted treatments for these diseases.

“Law school is where you learn to think like a lawyer,” Brad Smith ’84, president and vice chair of Microsoft, said at a 2015 conference celebrating Columbia Law School clinics. “But it’s clinical education that really teaches you to act like a lawyer.”

When Max Berger ’71 was living with his parents in Flushing, Queens, studying at Baruch College, and working part time at an accounting firm to help his family, he dreamed of going to law school. But he knew he couldn’t afford it.

“My parents were working-class people and didn’t really have any financial resources to speak of,” he remembers. “I had to get a scholarship.”

And he did, to Columbia Law School.

September 12, 2022 — The Institute for Ideas and Imagination is welcoming a new cohort of fellows and announcing a $7.5 million grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to solidify and expand operations.

July 15, 2022 — Columbia University proudly welcomes Professor Kim Phillips-Fein to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, where she will be the Robert Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History. This professorship was established by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, which supports the study of New York history and its role in the American experience.

March 24, 2022 — The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University has received a $20 million gift from Mike and Maria Repole and The Nonna’s Garden Foundation, which was established in 2006 in honor of Mike’s Nonna (“nonna” means grandmother in Italian). The gift will help ensure that the Berrie Center has the financial support it needs to continue its work as a “one of a kind” family-centered resource for adults and children with diabetes.

March 15, 2022 — Columbia Nursing will soon launch its first-ever full-tuition Masters Direct Entry/Doctor of Nursing Practice scholarship, thanks to a $5.2 million gift from Richard Simmons in memory of his wife, Mary Bleecker Simmons, a Class of 1960 graduate.

March 04, 2022 — Shirley and Walter Wang donate $10 million to enhance undergraduate interaction and social life and $1 million to connect Henry R. Kravis Hall and David Geffen Hall for Business School students.

Students applying to Columbia Business School will have access to a new scholarship fund in the 2022-23 academic year, thanks to a $10 million gift from Robert F. Smith ’94, founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. The Robert F.

Established by a group of visionary alumni from across the University, the CAA Scholarship provides an opportunity for alumni to support students at every Columbia School. It will not only provide recipients with financial assistance but also tap into the CAA’s vast network of alumni to provide personalized mentorship to each CAA Scholar, augmenting and enhancing the support provided by their individual School. As a result, recipients will create lasting bonds while they are guided through their time at Columbia and the decisions they make about their careers.

Columbia Business School announced today that philanthropist and entertainment executive David Geffen has joined Henry R. Kravis and other benefactors to support its new facilities on Columbia University’s Manhattanville campus.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center, its Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Pfizer Inc. have established the Columbia-Pfizer Clinical Trials Diversity Initiative, with the aim of reducing health disparities by increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities in clinical trials and enhancing the diversity of clinical researchers. Pfizer will provide a three-year, $10 million grant to Columbia to help establish and expand the Initiative.

Columbia University has been awarded a major grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to create an online, interactive atlas of historic New York City spanning the years 1820 to 1940. The project is a collaboration of Columbia’s History Department and the Center for Spatial Research in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).

One of the early supporters of the University-wide Columbia Student Support Initiative, announced in April 2021 by President Bollinger, is Armen Avanessians ’83SEAS, chief investment officer of Quantitative Investment Strategies at Goldman Sachs. Avanessians recently conferred a $10 million dollar gift to Columbia for the Avanessians Doctoral Fellowships for Engineering Thought Leaders and Innovators in Data Science.

July 1, 2021 — Dr. Zeynep Çelik has been named the inaugural Sakıp Sabancı Visiting Professor at the Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies at Columbia University. Her deep expertise and unique historical perspective on the architecture and urbanism of the region will enhance the Sakıp Sabancı Center’s goals.

May 19, 2021 — In recognition of the outstanding leadership and remarkable work of the late Dr. Kenneth A. Forde ’59VPS and his wife of sixty years, Kareitha “Kay” Forde, the Columbia Trustees established an endowed professorship in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Renowned scholar Steven Gregory, Professor of Anthropology, will be its inaugural incumbent. This professorship will propel the new department forward at this crucial moment in race relations and Black identity.

April 20, 2021 — Columbia University has announced a gift from Louis Choy, MD, and Janice Chan-Choy to support students at the Columbia School of Social Work and Columbia University School of the Arts.

One half of the gift will add to the existing Veronica Siu-Fun Pun Choy ’58 Scholarship at the School of Social Work. Named in honor of Dr. Choy’s mother, a distinguished alumna and one of Hong Kong’s social work trailblazers, the Choy Scholarship provides need-based support for MSW students.

March 30, 2021 — A new center that will provide specialized care for patients with Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases will begin seeing patients this summer at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The Cohen Center for Health and Recovery from Tick-Borne Diseases, supported by a $16 million gift from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, will be the first in New York City to offer dedicated treatment for people with Lyme and related diseases.

March 24, 2021 — Columbia University announced today another major step forward in advancing neuroscience: the establishment of the Sagol Professorship of Brain Science and the Sagol Brain Longevity Program at the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

Nobel laureate, University Professor, and Zuckerman Institute co-director Eric Kandel has been named the inaugural Sagol Professor of Brain Science.

Columbia University will develop a model curriculum—“Racial Justice and Abolition Democracy”—to address racial inequality in the criminal justice system thanks to a $5 million, three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

In partnership with community organizations and higher education institutions across the country, the upper-level curriculum seeks to redress the history of racialized punishment in the United States.

A successful $5 million fundraising effort will endow the center in Chang’s name and bolster groundbreaking U.S.-China legal research and programming. 

Columbia Law School has announced a $500,000 grant from Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP to expand the Law School’s Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic. Students in the clinic provide free, transactional business law services to entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, and community groups in the neighborhoods surrounding Columbia.

Columbia Journalism School has announced the creation of the Simon and June Li Center for Global Journalism which will prepare journalists to work, think and report globally.

The Columbia Justice Lab recently received a $1.25 million, three-year grant from Arnold Ventures to expand its program, EXiT: Executives Transforming Probation and Parole, launched in August 2019. EXiT is a network of over 60 current and former probation and parole executives committed to reducing the size and punitiveness of community supervision in the criminal justice system.

In partnership with Columbia University and two prominent New York galleries, artist Hugh Hayden ’18SOA helped found the Solomon B. Hayden Fellowships, forging a scholarship opportunity to attend Columbia University unlike any other.

July 28, 2020 — Today, Columbia University announced a $21.5 million gift from Dr. Ge Li ’94GSAS and Dr. Ning Zhao ’95GSAS to advance research and teaching in chemistry at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia College, and the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. As one of the largest gifts to the sciences on the Morningside campus in University history, the couple’s donation will have a profound impact on the field of chemistry for generations to come.

Columbia University has established the Hans Hofmann Professorship of Modern Art with a generous gift from the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust. Globally renowned scholar Kellie Jones, Professor of Art History and Archaeology, will be its inaugural incumbent.