May 9, 2002

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving Duke $30 million to support a new science facility and another $5 million for student life initiatives, Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane announced Thursday. The announcement was made Thursday at the Academic Council.

Melinda French Gates, a former Microsoft executive, is a member of Duke’s board of trustees and vice chair of its student affairs committee. She earned two bachelor’s degrees at Duke, one in computer science and the other in economics, and an MBA at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Her husband, Bill, is the founder and chairman of Microsoft.

In announcing the gift, Keohane said that expanding Duke’s teaching and research capability in the sciences by bringing together different disciplines to address major scientific challenges, and enhancing students’ out-of-classroom experiences, are important priorities in Building on Excellence, the university’s strategic plan. Building on Excellence was approved by the Duke trustees in February 2001.

Keohane said the new multidisciplinary sciences building is expected to be named The French Sciences Center in honor of Melinda French Gates’ family. Ms. Gates is a native of Dallas, where her parents, Raymond French and Elaine Amerland French, still live.

“Melinda French Gates is a wise and visionary leader at her alma mater,” said Keohane. “We’re grateful not only for the resources provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but also for Melinda’s personal leadership in helping us shape and implement university priorities. Melinda, Bill and the foundation staff have been typically thorough in evaluating Duke’s priorities and generous in helping us meet them.

“The gift will enable us to create a much-needed science teaching and research facility that will unite disciplines and improve teaching and research in the biological sciences and related disciplines, giving more undergraduates opportunities to experience the excitement of science and research. It also will speed our efforts to continue enhancing the ways in which Duke students live, study, work and socialize,” Keohane said.

The building is expected to house faculty from the departments of biology, chemistry, physics and biological anthropology and anatomy, “promoting interaction across fields of intellectual inquiry. Its location adjacent to the math/physics building and the Biological Sciences Building, and near the Levine Science Research Center, should encourage collaborative teaching and research programs and greater interaction between and among faculty and students,” Duke Provost Peter Lange said.

Lange said the building “will feature state-of-the-art research and teaching laboratories appropriate for conducting 21st-century research and for training students in emerging fields such as genomics, biological chemistry, physical biology and bioinformatics.”

“I’m pleased to be giving back to the university that has given me so much,” said Melinda Gates. “It is my hope that this new state-of-the-art science facility and the student life initiatives will enrich undergraduates’ learning experience.”

Larry Moneta, Duke’s vice president for student affairs, said $5 million of the Gates Foundation gift will support student life through projects such as the renovation of the university’s West Campus Union and Bryan Student Center.

The West Union and Bryan Center renovations will follow the scheduled fall 2002 opening of the $40 million, 350-bed West-Edens Link residence hall, which will connect the main section of West Campus with Edens Quad. The new and renovated facilities are part of a broader initiative to improve students’ undergraduate experiences.

In addition to moving all sophomores onto West Campus next fall and implementing linkages between halls on East Campus, where all freshmen live, and West Campus, the university is strengthening its residential life and academic support services for students, Moneta stressed, to “introduce a new level of community.”

“This generous gift will accelerate our plans to improve the quality of meeting places available to students on our West Campus,” said Moneta. “We’re looking to create or improve both formal and informal gathering places, including better offices for extracurricular activities, more multipurpose areas and considerably more locations for informal interaction.”

The Gates family has provided support to Duke previously, such as in September 1998 when they awarded a $20 million grant to enable Duke to establish its University Scholars Program, which supports interdisciplinary study by outstanding undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

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