Campus Visit Prompts $25 Million Gift.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- The American Technion Society (ATS) announced that it has received a signed commitment for $25 million from Business Wire Founder and Chairman Lorry I. Lokey of Atherton, Calif. The funds will be used for a combined life sciences and engineering center at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. "I feel that Israel has in the Technion an asset as valuable as MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cal Tech combined," said Lokey, who made his decision during the American Technion Society's annual mission to the campus. "I was very impressed by what I saw during my visit. And despite recent criticism about the huge decline in the quality of education in Israel Education in Israel is an important part of life and culture in Israel. Israel has a developed and comprehensive education system, reformed over the years to adhere to secular trends in education. , I chose to invest in Israeli education to help make it even better." Lokey is well known for both his business success and philanthropy. He built Business Wire - a San Francisco-based wire service that distributes press releases electronically - from a one-man outfit with six clients to a hugely successful company with average monthly billings of $12 million. Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA, NYSE: BRKB) is a conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies. recently purchased the company. No stranger to educational philanthropy, Lokey has over the past 15 years given more than $200 million to educational projects at Stanford (his alma mater), Santa Clara Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. University, Mills College Mills College, at Oakland, Calif.; for women; est. 1852 as the Young Ladies' Seminary at Benicia, Calif., moved 1871, chartered as Mills College 1885. The first women's college in the Far West, it has programs in English literature and creative writing, foreign and the University of Oregon The University of Oregon is a public university located in Eugene, Oregon. The university was founded in 1876, graduating its first class two years later. The University of Oregon is one of 60 members of the Association of American Universities. . Other beneficiaries include the newly completed Peninsula Jewish Community Center in Foster City, Calif. and Alameda Elementary in Portland, Ore., which Lokey jokingly "blames in large part for the tremendous financial success (he) became despite (him)self." The Lorry I. Lokey Technion Life Sciences and Engineering Interdisciplinary Research Center will be headed by Nobel Prize Nobel Prize, award given for outstanding achievement in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, peace, or literature. The awards were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, who left a fund to provide annual prizes in the five areas listed above. Laureate (2004, chemistry) Professor Aaron Ciechanover. Capitalizing on the Technion's position as one of the world's only technological universities with its own medical school, the center will make possible the development of new drugs and medical applications and technologies. "My concentration of grants to education is because the quality and amount of education one gets determines one's course in life," said Lokey. "And the better educated people are, the better the standard of living for them and their children." "Lorry's decision during his recent visit to the Technion shows the powerful impact of seeing first-hand the university's influence on Israel and on people around the world," said ATS President Stephen Laser. "This gift will serve to further the amazing work already being conducted at the Technion, and enable it to maintain its place at the forefront of research in Israel and the world." The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is Israel's leading scientific and technological center for applied research and education. Home to the country's first winners of the Nobel Prize in science It commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in nanotechnology, medicine, stem cell stem cell In living organisms, an undifferentiated cell that can produce other cells that eventually make up specialized tissues and organs. There are two major types of stem cells, embryonic and adult. research, computer science, biotechnology, water-resource management, aerospace. The majority of the founders and managers of Israel's high-tech companies are Technion graduates. The Technion's 18 faculties and 40 research centers and institutes in Haifa are home to 13,000 students and 826 faculty members. Based in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , the American Technion Society (ATS) is the leading American organization supporting higher education in Israel. The ATS has raised more than $1.2 billion since its inception in 1940, with half of that total generated in the last nine years. A nationwide membership organization with more than 20,000 supporters and 17 offices around the country, the ATS is driven by the belief that the economic future of Israel is in high technology and the future of high technology in Israel is at the Technion. Technion societies are located in 24 countries around the world. |
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