Endowment gives Duke $13.5M

The Duke Endowment has awarded gifts totaling $13.5 million to the University for science, engineering and research initiatives, as well as several other projects.

The largest grants will go toward programmatic support for Duke's new multidisciplinary science facility and the new Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Science.

"We are extremely grateful to The Duke Endowment for its sustained and generous support of university priorities," President Nan Keohane said in a statement. "These gifts will enable us to create much-needed science, engineering and research programs and facilities that will unite disciplines and improve teaching and research in these fields. It will also give our students new opportunities to experience the excitement of research, and continue to enhance the ways in which Duke students learn."

The Duke Endowment gift will provide $5 million toward programs at CIEMAS, $6 million for the University's new science initiative, and provide $1 million for the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy, a core component of the University's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy.

The Duke Endowment gift also provides $700,000 to the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative; $500,000 for expenses incurred during The Campaign for Duke; and $300,000 to restore the Aeolian Organ in Duke Chapel.

"The Duke Endowment tends to prefer to use its funds for programs rather than for buildings--for scholarships for students, books for libraries, and support for faculty," Elizabeth Locke, president of The Duke Endowment, said in a statement. "This year, however, our trustees made an exception because the need is extraordinary. If the buildings and labs aren't built and modernized, the faculty and students won't be able to do their work."

The Duke Endowment, based in Charlotte and separate from the University's own endowment funds, was started in 1924 by industrialist, philanthropist and Duke University benefactor James B. Duke. Today, it is one of the nation's largest foundations. In 2002, The Duke Endowment awarded more than $118 million to agencies and organizations in the Carolinas.