Beverly Hills billionaires give UC Davis $50 million to build agricultural research hub
By John Katsilometes | November 4, 2012
The University of California will receive $50 million from the families of billionaire Charles Harrison and his wife, who have given more than $500 million to the university and its colleges.
The gift is the largest ever made to the university by the Harrison family. The two funds will be used to build a new agricultural research campus, which would be located at the University of California at Los Angeles.
The funds, which will be used to create a new Center for Agricultural Research at the USC campus, will be paid for with existing funds, a university spokesman said.
In 2012, the two Harrison foundations made $50 million in university grants.
UC Davis, located in Davis, Calif., is the largest agricultural research university in the U.S., with an endowment of $947 million.
The main campus on the eastern edge of the city is anchored by the university’s Institute for Educational Development, which received $40 million from the Harrison family in 2009.
In June 2011, the university’s trustees voted to raise tuition for the first time in the institution’s 117-year history.
The university will also pay $50 million to build a research hub at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Officials at the Los Angeles school said that the move is the largest funding commitment to agricultural research in Los Angeles County and the Western U.S.
UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi said the funding “demonstrates the strength of our academic enterprise and the innovation we are continuing to develop through partnerships with industry, the public and our students.”
While the research will be conducted at the University of California at Los Angeles, the facility will be used by the University of California system, not the other way around.
