Foundation Donates $10 Million to Caltech

A foundation donated $10 million to Caltech for a new technology center, university officials announced Monday.

The gift from the David and Ellen Lee Family Foundation of Pasadena will be dedicated to improving computers through wireless links and other innovations. A new campus facility, to be named the Lee Center for Advanced Networking, will welcome researchers from a variety of disciplines, such as electrical engineering, computer science, applied physics and economics, Caltech President David Baltimore said.

David L. Lee, who holds a doctorate from Caltech in physics with a minor in economics, is the president and chief operating officer at Global Crossing Ltd., a fiber optic-networking company based in Bermuda with corporate staff in Beverly Hills.

“This whole area of communications networking is undergoing fundamental changes,” Lee said. “I’d like to see Caltech be the center of that.”