USC announces wide-spanning medical funding
USC’s Office of the President announced a new “major initiative” that aims to “advance human understanding in pharmaceutical sciences and biomedical engineering, and to facilitate greater integration with USC’s academic research community” in a communitywide email Thursday morning.
The statement announced that several million dollars in endowment funds will be given to two schools — the School of Pharmacy and Viterbi School of Engineering — at the University. Alfred E. Mann — a longtime trustee and recipient of an honorary doctorate degree in 2001 — gifted USC $112.5 million in 1998 to establish the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering. Since then, the Institute’s original endowment has grown to a value of $230 million, from which the funds for the new initiative will be drawn.
Today, the University announced four new components of the initiative — the renaming and endowing of two academic departments at USC, the creation of endowed chairs and additional funding for the USC Alfred E. Mann Institute — with more announcements to be made in the coming months.
The School of Pharmacy will be given a $50 million endowment and will be renamed to the Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. According to a press release published by the University, the endowment will be used for “student scholarships, faculty recruitment and integrating a university-wide research infrastructure related to biomedical innovation.”
The endowment is the largest to be given to any pharmacy school — with a subsequent renaming of said school as a result — in the state of California.
Thirty five million dollars will also be directed toward the Viterbi School of Engineering to endow and rename the biomedical engineering department to the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering.
The Viterbi endowment aims to “expand medical engineering research, attract top faculty members and strengthen its ties with the Keck School of Medicine of USC.” The donation is one of the largest gifts to a biomedical engineering department in the U.S. that will result in a name change.
The initiative will also involve the creation of “several new endowed chairs” who will work on interdisciplinary research through USC’s Keck School of Medicine and the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, as well as the newly endowed Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering and Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
An additional $80 million will be devoted to the USC Alfred E. Mann Institute, which was founded at the University in 1998. The institute “accelerates biomedical technology and creates commercially successful medical products” by supporting relevant student and faculty-led research at the University.
President Carol Folt praised the initiative in the press release, writing “this sweeping initiative reflects Alfred Mann’s pioneering vision and has the power to expand human understanding in pharmaceutical sciences and biomedical engineering.” She also praised donors for their contributions to University research and greater public health.
“The Mann Foundation’s generosity will enhance USC’s academic research community and our ability to educate the next generation of providers and researchers, drive scientific innovation and create commercially successful medical products that improve public health,” Folt wrote.
In the communitywide email, USC expressed its gratitude to the late Alfred E. Mann for the endowment funds and his deep ties to the University community.
“With this initiative, USC ensures that Dr. Mann’s mission to improve daily human life will continue well into the next century,” the statement read. “There are so many opportunities before us — to benefit not just the Trojan Family, but all humankind.”