March 15, 1995 Contact: Robert Irion (408/459-2495)
PACKARD FOUNDATION AWARDS $1 MILLION ENDOWMENT TO UC SANTA CRUZ FOR OCEAN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SANTA CRUZ, CA--The Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, already a key link in the growing chain of scientific institutions in the Monterey Bay Area, has received a significant boost from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation of Los Altos: a $1 million award to create an Endowment in Ocean Science and Technology.
Interest from the endowment will help fund collaborative projects among marine scientists at UCSC, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), and other regional research organizations. The Packard Foundation will pay into the endowment in three equal installments, beginning this month and continuing in March 1996 and March 1997. By the time the endowment is fully in place, its annual interest should provide about $50,000 per year for marine research.
"The Packard Foundation has been extremely generous in supporting public universities at a time when other sources of funding have diminished," says UCSC Chancellor Karl S. Pister. "The new endowment will increase our visibility in the ocean-science research community and will help us attract outstanding researchers and students to UCSC."
Pister credits UCSC's strong record of achievement in ocean science and technology, as well as existing grassroots collaborations between scientists and engineers at UCSC and MBARI, for the success of the proposal to the Packard Foundation. Prospects of even stronger ties between the two institutions--and among the others ringing Monterey Bay--have excited the researchers who helped write the proposal.
"This is the first source of funding that is specifically to enhance collaborative efforts," says associate vice chancellor for research James Gill, a professor of earth sciences at UCSC. "The Monterey Bay research community is comparable to Scripps or Woods Hole, but it's very distributed. This funding will begin to help knit the institutions together--and the money will always be there."
Gill notes that the award may help attract businesses in ocean science and technology and related fields to the area, due to the enhanced collaborations among institutions.
Professor of earth sciences Gary Griggs, director of the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS), will allocate the annual proceeds from the endowment, assisted by a campus committee and in consultation with MBARI and other organizations. Griggs envisions that the endowment will provide "seed money" in a variety of areas, including the following:
-- Initial funding for visiting researchers or leading graduate students working in ocean science and technology.
-- Collaborative and multidisciplinary projects that take advantage of the research potential of Monterey Bay and the surrounding deep ocean.
-- Efforts to improve communication links among the area's research institutions.
"The endowment will give us a jump start for some cutting- edge research programs, especially in areas where it can be a challenge to secure federal and other funding," Griggs says. "The IMS budget has been essentially unchanged for five or six years, and most of that is committed to salaries and facilities. This funding will give us the flexibility to bring in some exciting people and pursue new partnerships with institutions around the bay."
The Packard Foundation is a driving force behind the burgeoning education and research programs in the area, through its support of MBARI and other institutions. The foundation was created in 1964 to support and encourage organizations that depend on private funding and volunteer leadership. It makes grants for programs in the arts, the community, ocean science, the environment, population issues, education, and children's health.
Last year, the Packard Foundation granted $200,000 toward a planned Visitor Education Center at the Joseph M. Long Marine Laboratory, a coastal marine-research station operated by UCSC. To date, donors and foundations have committed about $2 million to the center, which will improve the lab's education programs for schoolchildren and the public. The facility will cost about $4.4 million for construction and exhibitions.
The Packard Foundation also awarded a $500,000 fellowship last year to UCSC biochemist Joseph Puglisi. Twenty of the coveted fellowships, worth $100,000 per year for five years, go annually to outstanding young researchers across the nation. The foundation began the fellowship program in 1988.
Editor's note: For further comment, contact James Gill at (408) 459-
2425 or
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