Businessmen Pledge Millions to Two Research Centers

Two donors have made major gifts to bolster the research operations of prominent universities:

• Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss-born engineer and businessman, has pledged $125-million to Harvard University to expand the university’s Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

• Lorry I. Lokey, the founder of Business Wire, a San Francisco company that distributes press releases, has pledged $42-million to Stanford University School of Medicine for a new stem-cell-research center. That comes on top of the $33-million commitment Mr. Lokey made to support the center last year.

At Harvard, university officials said Mr. Wyss’s pledge will be paid over the next five years. The money will endow seven professorships at the institution and support its operations.

Researchers at the institute will include biologists, chemists, engineers, mathematicians, physicians, and scientists from other disciplines. All will work collaboratively to attempt to uncover the engineering principles that govern life forms and use that knowledge to develop technologies they hope will be able to solve looming health-care and environmental issues.

Mr. Wyss earned an MBA at the university’s business school in 1965 and is the chairman of Synthes, an international medical-device company whose North American headquarters are in West Chester, Pa. In 2004, he gave $25-million to the business school for its Ph.D. program.

Mr. Wyss declined through a Harvard spokeswoman to be interviewed about his new pledge but said in a press release that he was “humbled” by the opportunity to contribute to work that may change the future of medicine and science.

“Little did I dream when I began my career in engineering that we would reach a point where engineers and biologists would be using nature’s templates to create solutions to our medical and environmental challenges.”

Stanford Gift

Mr. Lokey, who is 82, graduated from Stanford in 1949 and over the last 10 years has become one of the county’s most prolific philanthropists. He has landed on The Chronicle of Philanthropy‘s list of the most generous donors for the last eight consecutive years. Last year he ranked No. 23.

The research center, which the university plans to name for Mr. Lokey, is scheduled to open in 2010 and Stanford officials estimate it will cost approximately $200-million to build.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a state agency in San Francisco, has contributed $43.6-million to the center, and the university plans to use additional private donations and university funds to finance the balance of the cost.

Mr. Lokey said in a press release that he decided to start supporting stem-cell research after the Bush administration restricted federal support for such research in 2001.

“I’m terribly disappointed in the current administration’s outlook. It’s very narrow-minded. This is about lives being saved,” said Mr. Lokey.

Not counting this latest pledge, Mr. Lokey has given Stanford a total of approximately $80-million since he graduated.

He has given a total of at least $390-million to charity over his lifetime.

In an interview with The Chronicle last year, Mr. Lokey said he wishes other wealthy Americans would donate more money to charity than they currently give away.

“I’m doing it because I earn far out of proportion than what I’m worth to this world. But there are people that are of more worth to this world who donate not one-tenth of what I give away,” said Mr. Lokey. “Giving away a couple million is wonderful, but these rich people need to do better.”