Harvard gets record donation from HK billionaire brothers

Harvard University announced Monday its school of public health has received 350-million-US-dollar donation, the largest in Harvard's history, from a charitable foundation run by Hong Kong billionaire brothers Ronnie and Gerald Chan.

The gift from the Morningside Foundation will also lead to the renaming of the School, which will be called the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in honor of the two's late father, the university said in a statement.

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Dean Julio Frenk said the gift will focus on four global health threats: pandemics old and new, such as malaria, Ebola, cancer, and obesity; harmful physical and social environments such as those resulting from tobacco use, gun violence and pollution; poverty and humanitarian crises such as those stemming from war and natural disasters; and failing health care systems around the world.

"The Chan family's commitment to education and their belief in the power of public health is an inspiration, and their generosity will ensure we have the resources to continue to develop the most innovative solutions that will enable millions of people to live longer and healthier lives, now and in the future," Frenk said.

Harvard President Drew Faust said the gift signals that this is a "public health moment."

"This extraordinary gift from the Chan family will enable Harvard's School of Public Health to tackle intractable health problems and to translate rigorous research into action and policy worldwide," Faust said. "We are honored by this gift."

The donation came as part of the Harvard Campaign, a seven-year 6.5-billion-dollar fundraising effort that kicked off its public phase a year ago and which by the end of May had raised more than 3.8 billion dollars from more than 100,000 donors, the university said.

Gerald Chan, director of the Morningside Foundation who received master's and doctorate degrees from HSPH in the 1970s, said his father was a "staunch supporter of education and would be pleased with the gift."

"On behalf of my mother and my brothers, I want to express how pleased we are that the legacy of our late father can be honored by this gift to HSPH," Chan said. "He was a generous man who was a staunch supporter of education. He also wanted to support scientific research to alleviate human suffering. He would be very pleased with this gift today and all the good works that this gift will enable."

According to a list compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Chan's gift is among the largest single donations to universities. The list is topped by a one-billion-dollar endowment from the Anil Agarwal Foundation to establish Vedanta University in India. In the United States, the largest single donation was a 600-million-dollar pledge by Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon Moore and his wife, Betty, to the California Institute of Technology in 2001.