At a March reception honoring donors to the Discovery Fellows Program, from left to right: Elizabeth Watkins, dean of the Graduate Division and vice chancellor of Student Academic Affairs; philanthropist Harriet Heyman; Chancellor Sam Hawgood; and B. Joseph Guglielmo, dean of the School of Pharmacy. Photo by Elisabeth Fall.
At $60 million, the Discovery Fellows Program is already the largest endowed PhD education program in the history of the University of California system. The couple launched it last year with a $30 million gift, which was matched by UCSF and hundreds of individuals, most of whom gave to the University for the first time.
The fund recognizes the critical role doctoral students play in fueling biomedical research. As the endowment grows, it will increasingly take the financial pressure off faculty to fund education with research money and give students freedom to choose their mentors based on scientific rather than financial concerns.
Sir Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman
“This endowment will support basic science at UCSF for generations to come,” said Elizabeth Watkins, PhD, dean of the Graduate Division and vice chancellor of Student Academic Affairs. “It goes to the very heart of what UCSF is all about: creating the conditions for scientists to do great work.”
A spate of generous donations from UCSF friends and alumni helped propel the campaign to success. Among the donors who made leadership gifts to establish named fellowships are the philanthropist Hwalin Lee, PhD, class of ’66; former UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, and her husband Nicholas Hellmann, MD; retired Impax Laboratories, Inc., chief Larry Hsu, PhD; and Pablo Valenzuela, PhD, cofounder of Chiron Corp., and his wife Bernadita Valenzuela, PhD.
Lee, who received his doctorate from UCSF, said he gave to express his appreciation for his alma mater. “I think this is a very good opportunity to do something for the school,” he said.
Hsu, who received his doctorate from the University of Michigan, gave in the name of his friend and colleague, Leslie Z. Benet, PhD, a professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, whose counsel as a member of Impax’s board of directors helped his company become a success.
“He’s someone I look up to and someone I admire,” said Hsu. “I am very grateful for his guidance.”
Valenzuela also said that work done by basic scientists at UCSF had proved pivotal to his success in biotechnology.
"I am a great advocate of basic research," he said. “Supporting the Discovery Fellows Program is very attractive to me as a simple and direct way of encouraging the work of first-class scientists and their graduate students."
Basic Research is Foundation for Patient Care
A big reason the campaign was so successful was the unexpected bounty of $1.7 million in departmental commitments by the chairs of all 20 clinical departments in the School of Medicine. Peter Carroll, MD, MPH, the chair of Urology, led the drive and said the uniform support among clinical chairs shows just how invested they are in basic science.