In Education: Multimillion-Dollar Gifts to Pittsburgh and Ontario Schools
February 10, 2012 | Read Time: 1 minute
The University of Pittsburgh has received $22-million from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to further studies in energy technology and sustainability, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes.
The three-year gift will pay for faculty and graduate fellowships, equipment, and operational costs at Pitt’s Center for Energy and will supply a fund to encourage innovative research, the university said in announcing the pledge Thursday.
The center, established in 2008, studies energy delivery and efficiency, carbon management, and energy diversification. The school said the Mellon donation is one of the largest foundation gifts in its history but did not provide details.
In other education news, the founder of the firm behind Blackberry mobile devices has pledged $21-million to support the math and science departments at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, the Canadian Press reports.
Mike Lazaridis, who recently stepped down as co-chief executive of Research in Motion, and his wife, Ophelia, had already given more than $100-million to the school.
Waterloo’s Faculty of Science will receive $20-million to support two senior research chairs and expand an undergraduate laboratory and classroom building. The remaining $1-million will provide four-year scholarships for mathematics students.
