The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art has received a grant of $10 million from The Starr Foundation. The grant will be used to establish the C.V. Starr Research Foundation to sustain the college’s tradition of educating future leaders in engineering. It is the largest single foundation gift in the college’s 147-year history.
“We are grateful for the enormous generosity of The Starr Foundation,” said Dr. George Campbell Jr., president of The Cooper Union. “Tomorrow’s discoveries reside in the minds and hands of our gifted young people. The Cooper Union’s alumni have always been at the forefront of innovation, from Thomas Edison, inventor of the electric light bulb, to Stanley Lapidus, inventor of the ThinPrep Pap Test, the most widely used cervical cancer detection method. This grant will enable us to continue along that path, turning out exceptional engineers with a strong liberal education, who will become the innovators of the future.”
The Starr grant kicks off the public phase of The Campaign for Cooper Union, a fundraising effort to raise $250 million to support student scholarships, faculty development and academic programs, together with a substantial capital investment in Cooper Union’s new state-of-the-art academic building. To date, The Cooper Union has already raised $135 million.
Of the Starr grant funds, $6 million will go toward constructing and equipping the college’s new academic building on Cooper Square between Sixth and Seventh Sts., which will house the C.V. Starr Research Foundation, within the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. The gift will fund creation of research facilities as well as equip state-of-the-art laboratories. Demolition of the existing Hewitt Building began in November, with groundbreaking for the new building scheduled for April 2007.
In addition, $2 million will be added to the existing C.V. Starr Scholarship Fund, an endowment established in 2001 by The Starr Foundation as a permanent scholarship fund, providing full-tuition scholarships for students working on senior research projects. Also, $2 million will create and endow the C.V. Starr Distinguished Professor of Engineering.
