Archives — 2008

The Parkinson’s Disease Foundation has pledged $2.69 million to the Department of Neurology to support Parkinson’s disease research.

Strongheart Realty Inc. has pledged $2.5 million to establish the Sudhir Choudhrie Professorship of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine.

An anonymous alumnus of P&S has made a bequest to endow a professorship in the Department of Pediatrics.

The G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation has donated $2.4 million to the College of Physicians and Surgeons. The gift will support basic research in the Department of Neuroscience.

The School of International and Public Affairs has received $1 million from the Branta Foundation for faculty and student support. Of the $1 million, $300,000 will be used to create fellowship support for five outstanding students in the Executive MPA program at the school’s Picker Center, while $700,000 will support two new faculty members in public management as they launch new core courses, part of SIPA’s curriculum reform.

The College of Dental Medicine has received a bequest of $500,000 from the estate of Harold M. Levine, D.D.S., a 1936 graduate.

Biomet 3I has made a pledge of $250,000 to fund dean’s initiatives at the College of Dental Medicine.

The School of Nursing has received a $267,000 bequest from the estate of Regina A. Driscoll ’40NRS. Funds will be directed to the school’s campaign for building support.

An anonymous donor who graduated from the School of Nursing will give up to $100,000 for a challenge match to energize the school’s annual fund.

The Hastings Foundation has made a commitment of $50,000 to endow the Harold W. and S. Wilhelmina Shipley Scholarship Fund at the School of Nursing.

The Lincoln Fund has renewed its $50,000 commitment to the School of Nursing’s scholarship program.

The LCU Foundation has renewed its support of housing assistance for Nursing students with a commitment of $35,000.

The Carmel Hill Fund has made a commitment of $11.25 million to the Department of Psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in support of the Columbia University TeenScreen program. The program helps young people and their parents through the early identification of mental health problems such as depression.

The Louis & Gloria Flanzer Charitable Trust has made a commitment of $4.2 million to the Department of Ophthalmology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons to establish the new Gloria & Louis Flanzer Vision Care Center facility.

The Jerome L. Greene Foundation has made a pledge of $1.3 million to the Department of Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons to help establish an endowed professorship to honor Dr. Jerry Gliklich’s outstanding contributions to cardiology at Columbia.

Two anonymous alumni of the College of Physicians and Surgeons have committed $1 million each to the P&S Alumni Campaign’s Legacy Challenge Fund. The new initiative, which is designated for scholarships, provides one matching dollar for every three committed through a planned gift to create a named scholarship in honor of the Challenge donor.

The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust has made a commitment of $1.2 million to support the CUMC Brain-Gut Initiative, a multi-disciplinary research program at the College of Physicians and Surgeons that examines the neurobiological basis of nurture and focuses on developing new treatments for childhood developmental disorders.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur T. Shorin and Mr. and Mrs. Scott Silverstein have established the Shorin-Silverstein Family Scholars Program in Cardiology with a commitment of $500,000. Their gift will provide support for two junior faculty members each year who are engaged in clinical and research activities principally in the area of heart failure and transplantation.

Philip H. Geier Jr., a Columbia benefactor, has made a commitment of $500,000 to establish the Philip H. Geier Jr. Clinical Research Program in the Center for Advanced Cardiac Care in the Division of Cardiology.

Columbia benefactors Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Irving have made a generous gift to support construction of a new educational training center at the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.

Zo’s Fund for Life has committed $300,000 to the Glomerular Disease Center to continue research, patient care, and educational activities.

The Eye Surgery Fund has made a contribution of $255,000 to advance research at the Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute at the Department of Ophthalmology.

The Kaplen Foundation has made a gift of $250,000 to the Department of Ophthalmology to support Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute research on age-related macular degeneration.

The Edward John and Patricia Rosenwald Foundation has made a pledge of $250,000 to support the Department of Psychiatry.

EBI, L.P. has made a gift of $100,000 to fund research in the Division of Pediatric Orthopedics. The gift will educate orthopedic surgeons in the treatment of pediatric trauma and spine disorders.

Richard Hatch has made a gift of $111,000 to the College of Physicians and Surgeons through the Margaret Milliken Hatch Charitable Trust, in support of research on inflammatory bowel disease .

Mario J. Gabelli ’67BUS, a member of the Business School’s Board of Overseers, has pledged $5 million to the school for a purpose to be determined.

The Roger and Victoria Sant Founders’ Fund of The Summit Fund of Washington and The David and Lucille Packard Foundation have made generous gifts of $1.75 million and $1.5 million, respectively, in support of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) at Columbia University. The Coalition’s Advisory Committee includes Columbia Business School professors Geoffrey Heal (Committee Chairman) and Joseph Stiglitz, as well as Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Columbia Earth Institute. Bringing together talent from across government, academia, and industry, the Coalition continues to succeed in furthering its mission of achieving environmental and economic sustainability in today’s developing rainforest nations.

Philip Geier, Jr. ’58BUS, a member of the Business School’s Board of Overseers, has donated $1.5 million to establish the Philip H.Geier, Jr. Professorship of Marketing. Funding for the new chair will completed with $1.5 million from the Samberg matching program.

Glenn H. Greenberg ’73BUS has donated $500,000 to support the Loan Assistance Fund in the Business School’s Social Enterprise Program, Behavioral Lab, and Business Fund.

The Business School’s $5 million Leon G. Cooperman BUS’67 Scholarship Challenge has been completed three years ahead of schedule, generating $5 million in gifts for a total of $10 million in new financial aid, mostly in endowment to support need-based awards. The challenge led to the creation of 43 brand-new scholarship funds, and prompted gifts from 47 donors in total.

After auctioning a second collection of rare British Empire stamps, Bill and Sue Gross will again donated the proceeds—$1.5 million—to provide general support for Earth Institute’s Millennium Villages.

In a landmark contribution to the Earth Institute’s Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), the Tides Foundation will match up to $1.9 million in gifts in support of the project’s work to help selected mid-sized cities across sub-Saharan Africa achieve the internationally recognized Millennium Development Goals and promote sustainable development.

A $200,000 donation by Charles and Elizabeth Bowlus is the first contribution to be matched by the challenge program.

The Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Foundation has made two generous gifts to the Earth Institute: $610,000 to support education programs for two years, and $400,000 for phase 2 of the Koraro Water Research Project, which includes implementations of a microdam aquifer recharge and irrigation system and the development of a toolkit to facilitate design of future microdam facilities.

The Earth Institute received $500,000 from HSBC in the Community (USA) to support student involvement on climate change adaptation projects and research focused on the New York tri-state area.

The Earth Institute received $445,617 from Volvo Stiftelseforvaltning to support the Center for Globalization and Sustainable Development.

The Earth Institute received $140,000 from the MSST Foundation in support of the director’s discretionary fund and the PhD in Sustainable Development program.

The Earth Institute received $140,000 from the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City for the development of climate protection levels for the Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Board, which includes Cynthia Rosenzweig, senior research scientist at Columbia’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has donated $4.45 million to support the Graduate School of Journalism’s program in science and health journalism. The gift will be used in support of faculty, curriculum development, and student financial aid over a period of five years.

A $1.44 million bequest by Florence K. Geffen will support the Maxwell Geffen Scholarship at the Graduate School of Journalism.

Columbia Law School has received a number of notable grants from foundation sources over the past several months, including:

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has granted $449,789 in support of the "Contracting for Innovation" research project. This research project will be implemented by a team of faculty headed by Robert E. Scott, Alfred McCormack Professor of Law, and will focus on how legal contracts can promote—or inhibit—technological advancement.

The Ford Foundation has awarded $341,000 to the Center for Institutional and Social Change. Headed by Susan Sturm, George M. Jaffin Professor of Law and Social Responsibility, this project is part of a collaborative research initiative that seeks to repair institutional structural inequality in higher education.

The Jeht Foundation has granted $260,000 to support activities of the Human Rights Institute, including the Human Rights in the U.S. Project and the Detention Without Trial Working Group.

Professor Fritz Stern, Columbia’s distinguished historian of modern Germany and a former University provost, donated more than 500 letters from noted German scientists and professionals to his parents that were written during the first half of the 20th century. The collection, appraised at $118,860, complements an earlier donation that includes correspondence between Stern’s parents and Albert Einstein.

The Rare Book & Manuscript Library received $34,600 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to organize and preserve the papers of David A. Hamburg, president emeritus of the Carnegie Corporation and expert on international security issues and science policy.

The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation granted the C. V. Starr East Asian Library $10,000 for a February 2009 workshop to encourage undergraduate study in Himalayan and Tibetan studies and introduce students to Starr’s vast collections in these areas.

Patricia Brozinsky has endowed the Drs. James Aloysius Gibson ’73SW and Patricia Brozinsky Scholarship Fund at the School of Social Work. The gift will benefit students who demonstrate academic excellence and financial need, with preference to those with an interest in helping the elderly or disabled. Ms. Brozinsky previously endowed the James A. Gibson Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Matthew Grossman ’98CC has donated $1.5 million in support of a new chair: the Jerome and Matthew Grossman Professorship of Economics honors Matthew’s father, Jerome Grossman ’61CC.

An anonymous donor has given $1.5 million to help create an endowment for a new Alexander Hamilton Professorship of American Studies.

Both gifts are made in conjunction with the Lenfest Matching Challenge, which will provide $1.5 million to complete the endowment of each new chair.

The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust has donated $1.2 million to the College of Physicians & Surgeons to benefit Columbia University Medical Center’s Brain-Gut Initiative. The gift will support a multidisciplinary research program that examines the neurobiological basis of nurture and focuses on developing new treatments for childhood developmental disorders.

A $1 million gift to the Business School from Ming Chu Hsu ’92BUS will be used to create the Ming Chu Hsu Scholarship Fund. The fund will provide need-based financial aid to eligible students from countries that are emerging markets.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur T. Shorin and Mr. and Mrs. Scott Silverstein have together donated $500,000 to the College of Physicians & Surgeons to create the Shorin-Silverstein Family Scholars Program in Cardiology. Each year, the program will help support two junior faculty members who are engaged in clinical and research activities principally in the area of heart failure and transplantation.

The Gracious Glory Buddhism Foundation has donated $500,000 to provide financial support to selected students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences who pursue a doctorate in Chinese Buddhist Studies.

Barbara and Donald Jonas champion the effort to support and sustain the nursing profession through the Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence. In collaboration with Columbia’s Irving Institute of Translational Science, the School of Nursing will receive grant funding from the Jonas Nursing Scholars Program, which addresses the nation’s worsening shortage of academic nursing faculty by underwriting local educational development of academic nurses and partnerships between New York City-area schools of nursing and clinical affiliates. The School of Nursing will receive $750,000 over four years to support two pre-doctoral scholars. The School is also a participant in a cross-collaborative effort with Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Columbia University School of Public Health to fund a third Jonas Scholar.

Columbia Law School received a $1 million dollar matching gift from Gerry Lenfest ’58LW in honor of his 50th reunion. The gift, which matched gifts made from his classmates during the reunion year, helped encourage 46 percent of the class to support the Law School, raising over $1.6 million in honor of their milestone reunion.

A $1 million bequest from Michael Finkelstein ’60LW has established the Finkelstein Fellowships at the School’s Center for Israeli Law. This gift will help bring visiting scholars and faculty from Israel to participate in the activities and research of the Center.

Harvey Miller ’59LW has funded the Miller Professorship with a gift of $1.5M (part cash pledge, part bequest) that will be matched by the Lenfest Challenge program.

Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, a Brazilian mining company, pledged $1.5 million to help establish the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment (VCC), a joint venture between Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute. Directed by Dr. Karl Sauvant, the VCC seeks to be a leader on issues related to foreign direct investment in the global economy, with special attention to the sustainability dimension of such investments.

Dave Rickey ’79EN and Brenda Rickey celebrated the May graduation of their daughter, Kelly, with a generous gift of $1 million to establish the Brenda and Dave Rickey Scholarship Fund. The fund will provide financial aid for undergraduate students at The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science who are majoring in an engineering discipline and have graduated from high schools in San Diego County, California.

Keystone Dental has made an unrestricted gift of $72,000 to the College of Dental Medicine. Unrestricted gifts provide the Dean with the flexibility to direct funds to the area in which they are most needed.

Lois Jackson ’77, ’80CDM has made a commitment of $50,000 to the Global Externship Program to help offset the cost of domestic and international travel for College of Dental Medicine students. By giving students the opportunity to expand their knowledge of other cultures, the program aims to instill a sense of global community and an appreciation for the need to promote oral health care for poor and underserved people.

The School of Nursing received a bequest of $65,000 from the estate of Regina Driscoll for the Campaign’s Building Fund and a $50,000 pledge from the Hastings Foundation to endow the Harold W. and S. Wilhelmina Shipley Endowed Scholarship Fund.

George Violin, M.D. ’63CC, ’66SIPA, ’67P&S has made a gift to establish the Violin Family International Travel Award at P&S. The Award will fund travel, conference fees, and biomedical research expenses in Israel for Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members in the basic sciences.

Angioblast Systems has made a gift of $552,000 to support clinical stem cell research and other activities of Columbia’s Specialized Center of Clinically Oriented Research program in the Department of Surgery.

Sol Berg has renewed his support for the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine with a gift of $250,000 to support pancreatic cancer research.

Joan Schneeweiss has made a gift of $100,000 to the Department of Medicine to support research at the Joan and Michael Schneeweiss Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center.

Susan and Gary Rosenbach renewed their pledge of $100,000 to the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology to fund fellowship training.

The Ned and Emily Sherwood Family Foundation has made a commitment of $250,000 to support the work of young investigators in the Division of Cardiology.

The Department of Pediatrics Division of Cardiology raised $260,000 for fellowship training at its annual “Heartbeat Cabaret” fundraiser in March.

The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation received a gift of $150,000 from the Steel Institute of New York/The Ornamental Metals Institute of New York to support a 2009 conference on metals, along with the associated publication and DVD project. This conference will be the third in a series of materials conferences that foster a unique dialogue between academia and industry at the School, following a 2007 conference on glass and a conference on concrete slated for later this year.

Bonnie Subramanian and Arvind Raghunathan have made a gift in support of an endowed professorship in South Asian Studies.

Il Hwan and Soon Ja Cho, owners of a New Jersey-based sportswear company, have donated $1.5 million in support of the Il Hwan and Soon Ja Cho Professorship of Korean Religions. The newly created chair will be held by an EALAC professor whose scholarship and teaching focuses on Korean religions, with special emphasis on Korean Buddhism. The chair will complement three existing chairs in Korean history and literature, as well as several professorships in Buddhist studies and other Asian religions. It will be endowed at the level of $3 million thanks to a matching donation under the Lenfest Challenge established in 2006 by University Trustee Gerry Lenfest LAW’57.

A bequest from Sylvia Ashley will provide $1 million to fund scholarships for undergraduates who have been disadvantaged as a result of poverty or a physical handicap.

A $3.5 million bequest by Julius Blocker has established a fund at SIPA that will foster international student exchange through funding for graduate students who wish to pursue academic study abroad at German universities.

The Gates Foundation has given a $3.5 million gift in support of core infrastructure needs and salaries for senior scientists working on the Institute’s Millennnium Villages project.

Bill and Sue Gross have donated $1.58 million to provide general support for the Millennium Villages, raising the money through a highly publicized auction of their collection of rare Scandinavian stamps.

Trustee Gerry Lenfest ’58LW has donated $5 million in support of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, launched three years ago to study a range of energy technology systems and research applications for broad public use. The gift will create an endowment to make the center’s work a permanent part of Columbia’s energy research agenda. Lenfest has previously donated funds to endow two professorships at the Earth Institute; one of them, Dr. Alyssa Park, is also the Center’s deputy director.

Nicole Alger has pledged $250,000 in unrestricted funds to be used for Earth Institute’s highest priorities.

Columbia University Libraries received $371,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for Preserving Historic Audio Content: Developing Infrastructures and Practices for Digital Conversion. The project will preserve 820 audiotapes while developing a fully functional infrastructure for audio preservation.

The Getty Foundation has granted the Rare Book & Manuscript Library $145,000 to process the papers of art historian and critic Meyer Schapiro (1904–1996). The collection comprises 187 linear feet of material, including Schapiro’s research files, audio tapes, correspondence, and gallery invitations.

The C. V. Starr East Asian Library received a three-year grant of $300,000 from the Starr Foundation. The unrestricted grant will support initiatives including infrastructure improvements, staff, and collection development.

The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation provided a grant to the Rare Book & Manuscript Library to make accessible the nearly 450 puppets and 138 masks from the former Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum, which are now housed at RBML. James Brander Matthews (1852–1929), America’s first professor of dramatic literature, created a Dramatic Museum at Columbia in 1911 to supplement his teaching .

Dave Rickey ’79EN and Brenda Rickey celebrated the May graduation of their daughter, Kelly, with a generous gift of $1 million to establish the Brenda and Dave Rickey Scholarship Fund. The fund will provide financial aid for undergraduate students at The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science who are majoring in an engineering discipline and have graduated from high schools in San Diego County, California.

The Tow Foundation will give $5 million to Columbia Journalism School to help establish a center dedicated to the research and teaching of professional journalism in new and emerging media. The $5 million endowment must be matched by an additional $10 million from other sources.

The gift provides an opportunity to create a center of excellence that will examine as well as advance and create new forms of digital journalism. As traditional media, including print and broadcast, encounter tightening budgets and changing audience habits, new media are responding to the evolving needs and interests of the public. The gift will help bolster and inform the existing curriculum for the new media specialization as well as other new media initiatives at the Journalism School.

The foundation has made a similar gift, of $3 million, to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

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Nand Khemka ’55, ’56Bus has donated $1 million to the Business School to establish the Nand and Jeet Kehmka Distinguished Speaker Forum. The new program will bring recognized business leaders and policy makers to New York to address key constituencies and share their perspectives on India’s economy and business policies.

David M. Silfen ’68BU has pledged $1.5 million in support of the Silfen Professorship Fund at at the Business School. The gift will be combined with an additional $1.5 million from the Samberg Matching Challenge to create a new professorship.

The Columbia Campaign Council for Undergraduate Education (CCC) had six volunteer members when it held its initial meeting in January. In five short months, this core group has recruited seven additional members—more than doubling the size of the original council—while raising $1.5 million. Director of A&S Development Andrea Rounds, the group’s liaison at the Office of Alumni and Development, is optimistic that the Council will reach 15 members before the end of the fiscal year.

Donald C. Waite ’66BUS has pledged $1.5 million to support a new chair in social enterprise, the seventh created so far under the $25 million Samberg Challenge.

Advancing its long-standing mission to find a cure for diabetes, the Russell Berrie Foundation and its leader, Angelica Berrie, have made an extraordinary commitment of $21 million to Columbia for the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center.The gift will provide funding for non-reimbursed clinical care, a new professorship, new pilot research, a continuation of the Berrie Program in Cellular Therapies (research efforts aimed at preventing the devastating complications of diabetes), and an endowment. This gift is part of a larger $28 million gift shared by Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for patient-centered diabetes-related efforts. The Berrie Foundation’s contributions to diabetes research and treatment at CUMC now total nearly $57 million.

The Paul Marks Scholars Fund at CUMC provides matching funds for academic departments to recruit outstanding young scientists and to retain those who have distinguished themselves as top physician-scientists. Recent commitments to the Paul Marks Scholars Fund include a $1 million commitment from Jack and Susan Rudin and a $100,000 commitment from the Felix & Elizabeth Rohatyn Foundation.

Family and friends of the late Muzzi Mirza have made gifts and pledges totaling more than $2 million in support of the Muzzi Mirza Pancreatic Cancer Prevention Program in the Pancreas Center. The campaign that established the program was led by Mr. Mirza’s wife, Susan, and his former business associates, Stephen Berger, Paul Barnett, Douglas Hitchner, William Hopkins, Brian Kwait, and Douglas Rotatori.

Bob Berne ’60CC, ’62BUS and his wife, Steffi, have made gifts totaling $13 million in support of financial aid at Columbia College. The gifts are in the form of charitable remainder unitrusts, which will be invested as part of the University’s endowment. Mr. Berne expects that the growth of the endowment investments will generate significant unitrust income for him and his family during their lifetimes. Even more, these unitrusts will ultimately provide a great deal of support for financial aid. The gifts are the first to Columbia of this type.

“Bob is a wonderful volunteer,” says Fred Hartwick, the executive director of Planned Giving. “He was instrumental in helping the Office of Gift Planning to develop this opportunity to invest funds in the University endowment.” For more information about this type of gift, please call the Gift Planning Office at 800-338-3294.

The School of Nursing, in collaboration with Columbia University’s Irving Institute of Translational Science, has been named one of the first four recipients of grant funding from the newly launched Jonas Nursing Scholars Program. Established last year by the New York-based Jonas Center of Nursing Excellence, the program is designed to address the nation’s worsening shortage of academic nursing faculty, primarily by underwriting local educational development of academic nurses and partnerships between NYC-area schools of nursing and clinical affiliates. SON will receive $560,000 over four years to support two predoctoral scholars, who must agree to complete their doctoral degrees by the end of the four-year grant period and teach nursing in New York metropolitan area for at least four years afterwards. The School is also a participant in a cross-collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Columbia University School of Public Health to fund a third Jonas Scholar. Columbia’s two Jonas Scholars will be part of the first student cohort to enter the School of Nursing’s newly approved Ph.D. Program in September 2008. For additional details about the Columbia Jonas Scholars or the Ph.D. in Nursing Program, contact Program Director, Nancy King Reame, MSN, Ph.D.

An anonymous donor has pledged $20 million in support of the new Interdisciplinary Science Building, currently under construction on the northwest corner of Morningside Campus, as well as $5 million for College financial aid.

University Trustees Chair Bill Campbell ’62CC has donated $2.5 million to benefit ethnic studies and Columbia’s Center for Career Education.

The Mendelson family has donated $1.5 million in support of the new Mendelson Family Professorship in American Studies. With additional support from the Lenfest Matching Program, the resulting $3 million endowment will fund the directorship of the American Studies program. Professor Andrew Delbanco, the current program director, will be the first Mendelson Family Professor.

University Trustees Chair Bill Campbell ’62CC has donated $2.5 million as part of his ongoing support of the Columbia Campaign for Athletics: Achieving Excellence. The gift will go toward new and improved facilities at the Baker Field Athletics Complex.

A $2 million pledge by Geoffrey ’82EN and Annette Grant ’83BC will be used to endow the squash head coaching position, which will be named for Coach Ken Torrey—who started Columbia’s program in the 1970s—upon his retirement. The Grants are leading an effort to build the program’s endowment so it can move to varsity status in 2011.

Columbia Business School is proud to announce EMC Corporation’s recent in-kind donation of a full Storage Area Network (SAN) valued at $750,000. The EMC SAN will allow the School’s Information and Technology Group to completely overhaul and modernize its current storage environment. Features of the network include a new centralized research server and student portal system, which will greatly enhance School-wide research and benefit students with increased e-mail storage, quotas, document sharing, and RSS capabilities. This generous gift was made possible by Joe Tucci ’84, Chairman, President, and CEO of EMC Corporation, and member of the School’s Board of Overseers.

The Glaser Progress Foundation continues its generous support of the Access Project with a new gift of $1.5 million, bringing its total support to $5.9 million since 2003. The Access Project—directed by Dr. Josh Ruxin, assistant clinical professor of public health at the Mailman School of Public Health—provides management support and technical assistance to strengthen health systems in Africa, with a current focus in Rwanda.

With a new $1.4 million grant from the United Health Foundation, researchers and collaborators from the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab and the Collaborative Initiatives at M.I.T. have joined together to address the complex issues related to the epidemic of obesity in America through an interdisciplinary, systems-based approach. This one-year project will draw together experts in public health, medicine, business, economics, and design to apply a broad perspective while identifying and analyzing issues on a variety of scales. The ultimate goal is to pinpoint strategies for arresting and reversing the upward trend in childhood obesity and to provide recommendations for implementing national pilot projects.

Joseph ’64CC and Barbara Ellis pledged $1 million to support the critical priorities of the Earth Institute, including the Earth Clinic and the development of the field of sustainable development as a major at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Betsee Parker pledged $1 million in unrestricted support for the Earth Institute’s work in the Millennium villages and for the work of Earth Institute director and Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs.

Advancing its long-standing mission to find a cure for diabetes, the Russell Berrie Foundation and its leader, Angelica Berrie, have made an extraordinary commitment of $21 million to Columbia for the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. The gift will provide funding for non-reimbursed clinical care, a new professorship, new pilot research, a continuation of the Berrie Program in Cellular Therapies (research efforts aimed at preventing the devastating complications of diabetes), and an endowment. This gift is part of a larger $28 million gift shared by Columbia and New York-Presbyterian Hospital for patient-centered diabetes-related efforts. The Berrie Foundation’s contributions to diabetes research and treatment at CUMC now total nearly $57 million.

The Paul Marks Scholars Fund at CUMC provides matching funds for academic departments to recruit outstanding young scientists and to retain those who have distinguished themselves as top physician-scientists. Recent commitments to the Paul Marks Scholars Fund include a $1 million commitment from Jack and Susan Rudin and a $100,000 commitment from the Felix & Elizabeth Rohatyn Foundation.

Family and friends of the late Muzzi Mirza have made gifts and pledges totaling more than $2 million in support of the Muzzi Mirza Pancreatic Cancer Prevention Program in the Pancreas Center. The campaign that established the program was led by Mr. Mirza’s wife, Susan, and his former business associates, Stephen Berger, Paul Barnett, Douglas Hitchner, William Hopkins, Brian Kwait, and Douglas Rotatori.

The Engineering School has received a gift from Philips Electronics to establish the Philips Electronics Professorship in Columbia’s Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics in The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. The contribution from Philips is being given in honor of Professor Gertrude Neumark Rothschild’s pioneering role as a woman engineer. Dr. Neumark Rothschild is a current member of the Columbia faculty who was employed by Philips Laboratories between 1960 and 1985.

The professorship will be held by either a newly or recently tenured faculty member, and may either be someone currently on the faculty or someone recruited to the position with consideration given to a candidate’s status as a member of a group that is underrepresented on the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, so long as such consideration is in keeping with Columbia’s goal of obtaining the benefits of diversity.

Donald C. Waite ’66BUS has pledged $1.5 million to support a new chair in social enterprise, the seventh created so far under the $25 million Samberg Challenge.

A newly endowed chair in the Arts and Sciences will be created with the generous support of Columbia University’s Black Alumni Council. The M. Moran Weston/Black Alumni Council Professorship at Columbia University, which is expected to be formally approved by the University’s Trustees in the spring, will be held by a professor in an Arts and Sciences department whose scholarship and teaching focuses on an aspect of the African-American experience. Named in recognition of Columbia’s first African-American Trustee, the position will be endowed at the level of $3 million through a partnership between the University and its alumni and friends.

The Goldthwaite Foundation has pledged $1 million to the College of Physicians & Surgeons to support research in colorectal cancer through the Laparoscopic Oncology and Physiology Laboratory in the Department of Surgery.

The St. Giles Foundation has pledged a $1 million gift to the College of Physicians & Surgeons to found the St. Giles Comprehensive Sickle Cell-Thalassemia Program at Columbia University, with the goal of establishing a national model for the care of patients with sickle-cell disease, thalassemia, and other hemoglobinopathies. The program will be directed by Gary Brittenham, M.D., James A. Wolff Professor of Pediatrics and director of pediatric hematology, and Robert DeBellis, M.D., associate clinical professor of medicine-hematology/oncology.

Hal Robertson ’81EN has pledged $1 million in support of Columbia’s baseball program. The gift counts toward the $100 million Columbia Campaign for Athletics.

Ambassador Steven Green and his daughter Kimberly have given $500,000 through the Green Family Foundation to support the Earth Institute’s efforts to provide policy advice on efforts to alleviate extreme poverty in Haiti.

A $2 million gift has established the new Lulu Chow Wang Visiting Scholar Program, which will build a bridge between the Business School and management institutions across Asia. Each year the School will welcome an academic or individual from the business, nonprofit, or government sectors. Scholars will be chosen from China or, if necessary, elsewhere in Asia. While in residence, the visiting scholar will participate in the School’s intellectual life and take full advantage of the University’s resources in order to pursue his or her own research projects.

James L. Melcher ’61CC and Dr. April Ann Benasich have donated $500,000 to benefit both Columbia College and the Columbia fencing program. Fencing will receive $200,000 in endowment funds plus an additional $50,000 for current use, which will allow the team to participate in more national tournaments. In allocating $200,000 for financial aid endowment at Columbia College and $50,000 to the College annual fund, the couple enhances their gift through the Kluge Challenge, which will provide an additional $250,000 in their name toward endowed financial aid.

Myra Levine Harris has pledged $150,000 to create an annual prize in memory of her son, Arthur J. Harris ’01CC. The gift will allow a leading student in creative writing or film (at the School of the Arts) or in journalism (at the Graduate School of Journalism) to complete an ambitious project upon graduation, with the prize alternating between the schools each year.

Barbara Whitman ’95SOA, a producer of the Broadway musicals Legally Blonde and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, has donated $100,000 to create an endowed fellowship for SOA students—the first such endowment from a graduate of the producing program in the school’s Theatre Arts division.

The Lincoln Fund awarded the School of Nursing $50,000 for support of minority student scholarships. This is the seventh consecutive year that the Lincoln Fund has provided scholarship support.

Procter and Gamble recently donated $150,000 to support student programs at the College of Dental Medicine. The gift will support the newly established Faculty Advisor Program that provides informal mentoring and career guidance to enhance the student environment. The P&G gift will also sponsor the White Coat Ceremony for our incoming Class of 2011 and will underwrite the Transition Ceremony that marks the transition from second year to third year, when students begin to care for patients.

John W. Rowe, M.D., professor of health policy and management at the Mailman School of Public Health, received a $250,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to lead an international group of social and behavioral scholars, demographers, and economists in planning the National Research Network on an Aging Society.

The National Center for Children in Poverty (Mailman School of Public Health) received a $250,000 grant from an anonymous donor to support the Center’s work on healthy child development and school readiness.

The Mellon Foundation has donated $6 million to create an endowment that will fund summer and travel fellowships as well as scholar research grants for doctoral students in Arts and Sciences departments.

Columbia has established an endowment for the head coaching position for varsity men’s tennis, which will be named the Bidyut K. Goswami Head Coach of Men’s Tennis whenever Goswami retires. (The University does not permit endowed titles to include the name of the person holding the position.) Goswami has led the Lions to six Ivy League titles in his 27 years at the University. The endowment, part of the $100 million Columbia Campaign for Athletics, is supported by $2 million in gifts from Philip Milstein ’71CC, vice chair of the University Trustees and a former Columbia tennis player, and several other College alumni, former tennis players, and friends. Until Goswami retires, the endowment’s title will be the Columbia Tennis Alumni and Friends Head Coach of Men’s Tennis.