Gift of $20 million will
aid women in sciences
An anonymous donor has
given Stanford $20 million to help boost the university's
efforts at attracting and retaining women faculty and
students in science and engineering, Provost John
Hennessy announced Friday.
The gift will create three
endowed funds to be known as the Gabilan Funds, in
accordance with the donor's wish. The income from these
funds will support three areas, each with a preference
for women: graduate fellowships in science and
engineering; a new provost's discretionary fund to
attract science and engineering faculty; and an
undergraduate engineering diversity fund.
"We're delighted to
receive this gift, which will go a long way toward
leveraging our ability to attract the best women in
science and engineering, both as graduate students and as
faculty members," Hennessy said.
The gift provides $10
million to the Stanford Graduate Fellowships in Science
and Engineering. Because gifts to that program are
matched one-for-one, the anonymous donor's gift will
result in 34 annual Gabilan Fellowships for graduate
students, with preference given to women doctoral
candidates. Stanford Graduate Fellowships in Science and
Engineering reduce the university's dependence on federal
support for graduate students. They also allow students
to choose the most promising course of research rather
than having to select a project based on the vagaries of
available funding.
The donor also is
providing $8 million to endow The Gabilan Provost's
Discretionary Fund with a preference for women and with
special attention to engineering and the sciences. The
endowment will generate about $400,000 a year and is
aimed at attracting and retaining highly sought-after
faculty, providing them, for example, with research
support funding and start-up funds to buy new laboratory
equipment.
"This is a wonderful
gift," said Pat Jones, vice provost for faculty
development and professor of biological sciences.
"Progress in
increasing the number of women faculty in science and
engineering at Stanford and elsewhere has been steady,
but slower than we would like in some fields. This gift
will certainly enhance our efforts to hire outstanding
senior women faculty and, by endowing Stanford graduate
fellowships, will boost the number of promising young
women in the pipeline."
The third part of the
gift, $2 million, will endow The Gabilan Undergraduate
Engineering Diversity Program Fund in the School of
Engineering, with a preference for programs that prepare,
encourage and support women as they pursue their
education leading to careers in engineering. The gift
will help provide more stable funding for existing and
future programs aimed at supporting women and minorities
interested in science and engineering. The programs
include the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships,
which give students a $5,000 summer stipend for working
on a lab research project in collaboration with a faculty
member; tutorial programs; and the Stanford Summer
Engineering Academy, a program for incoming freshmen
interested in pursuing an engineering or science degree.
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