Stanford Gets $15 Million for Study of Astrophysics

Pehong Chen, founder and chief executive of BroadVision, will donate $15 million to Stanford University to establish an institute for the study of particle astrophysics and cosmology, the school said Thursday.

Researchers at the Pehong and Adele Chen Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Institute will explore such questions as: What powered the Big Bang? What is the role of dark matter? What are the dynamics of black holes, neutron stars and other cosmic objects?

“The time is right for this exciting new intellectual center. We’ll have a confluence of some of the best minds addressing some of the most fascinating and fundamental questions about the nature of the universe and how it all began,” said Stanford President John Hennessy.

The Chen gift will be used to fund a new building at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, which the school operates under contract with the Department of Energy, and an endowed professorship that will allow Stanford to recruit the institute’s first director.

Groundbreaking for the 25,000-square-foot building is expected later this year.

Chen founded BroadVision in 1993. The Redwood City-based firm develops an integrated product line of applications for personalized enterprise portals. Global enterprises and government entities use these applications to sell, buy and exchange information over the Web and on wireless devices.