Beverly Hills billionaires give UC Davis $50 million to build agricultural research hub
A new facility will be the nation’s “largest, most modern, and most diverse agricultural research and extension center,” and it’ll be located on the grounds of the University of California at Davis.
A new facility will be the nation’s “largest, most modern, and most diverse agricultural research and extension center,” and it’ll be located on the grounds of the University of California at Davis.
The five-story building, which would house dozens of scientists and a state-of-the-art research library, will be built by UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and the university’s Board of Regents. The university is currently building a $20 million, 10,000 square foot research library in the former UC Davis hospital, and a $40 million, 3,100-square foot research library will be built the first year in the new facility.
The $50 million, $2.1 million, and $5 million of the total cost will come from gifts to the university, the Regents, and the university foundation. The University of California Foundation, which received $1.5 million from the Regents, contributed $4 million to the project, while the donor of the $2.1 million gift was the California Farm Bureau Federation, which has a $10 million endowment, and the agricultural research conglomerate F. Hoffman LaRoche, whose own annual giving to UC Davis has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, to $14.5 million.
The research library will be funded under the California Endowment, which has a $30 million endowment, $20 million of which came from F. Hoffman LaRoche.
“This project will transform the university and its campus and create a model for the future as we expand our capacity to manage and apply technology to the ever-increasing need for farm and plant science research,” Katehi said.
More than 1,100 new jobs and 4,600 new research-based positions, including positions in fields like plant pathology,