UCLA Given $45 Million for Science Center

UCLA announced Thursday that it will construct a neuroscience research center thanks to a $45-million donation that is the largest charitable gift from an individual in University of California history.

The facility, to be called the Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, will be named for the donor, whose full name is being kept private.

“UCLA is proud and honored to be the recipient of this gift, which is one of the most significant contributions in the history of public higher education,” said UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young.

Dr. Gerald S. Levey, provost of the UCLA School of Medicine, praised the donor for showing “not only tremendous generosity, but great vision for the betterment of human health and understanding.”

Levey refused, however, to give any details about the donor’s identity, or explain the unusual use of parentheses in the building’s name.

“There will be a lot of people in this community who will know. But I am bound to him to not say anything else,” Levey said. “The donor feels very strongly about that.”

The UC Board of Regents on Thursday authorized the building’s construction, which is scheduled to begin in October.

The donation comes as UCLA is preparing to launch a billion-dollar fund-raising campaign, the biggest in its history.

The new seven-story building, which will be at Westwood Plaza and Circle Drive South, will house 27 laboratories that will be designed in an open floor plan to encourage communication among researchers and trainees. When the 120,000-square-foot building is completed in late 1998, each floor will have communal equipment, seminar rooms and areas for informal gathering.

Among the multidisciplinary programs to be housed in the facility will be human genetics, neurogenetics, developmental neurobiology and neurobiology of cellular communications, among others.

“Laboratory assignments for the neurosciences will be by program area, not by academic department or other artificial barrier,” Levey said. “This is an unprecedented plan, one which we expect will dramatically enhance research results.

“Research progress in this area has tremendous implications for understanding human behavior and for treating many widespread and currently incurable diseases and disorders.”

In addition, the research center will serve as a scholarly crossroads for established research units at UCLA such as the Brain Research Institute and the Molecular Biology Institute.

The donor was described in a UCLA statement as having “long been committed to advancing medical progress against disease.”

“The innovative design and organization of this new research center lays the groundwork for what we believe will be a uniquely productive research enterprise at UCLA,” the donor was quoted as saying.