Cornell Gets $80 Million Gift for Sustainability Research

Patricia and David Atkinson (Cornell University)

Cornell University alumnus David R. Atkinson and his wife Patricia Atkinson (pictured right) have given the university an $80 million gift to turn a three-year-old pilot program that they funded into a permanent, research center on challenges in the global energy, environmental, and economic development arenas. The university says the contribution represents the largest gift by an individual ever to Cornell’s Ithaca, New York campus, as well as the largest gift to a university for sustainability research and faculty support.

In its pilot stage the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future already harnesses contributions from 220 faculty fellows in 55 departments. Frank DiSalvo, the center’s director and a professor of chemistry says, “The center provides the means and programs to build new, multidisciplinary collaborations and the external partnerships needed to meet such challenges.”

Examples of these collaborations include a project joining Cornell engineers and chemists with IBM scientists on solar capture technologies. In another example, veterinary, engineering and computer science researchers are collaborating to replace antibiotics with bacteriophages -– viruses that infect bacteria -– which can be used in the food-animal industry.