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Dells' $50 Million Donation to Spark UT-Austin Building Wave: Pediatric Research Unit, Computer Science Center Among Planned Projects

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 09:04 CDT

By Karen Brooks, The Dallas Morning News

May 16--AUSTIN -- The University of Texas at Austin will get a new "world-class" pediatric research institute, a new computer-science building and a childhood public-health center with $50 million in grants from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, officials said Monday.

The Austin-based projects will cost a total of about $170 million, said Mark Yudof, chancellor of the UT System. Beyond the Dell gift, the university will raise more private funds and issue bonds, he said.

"The discoveries and advances made as a result of these grants will benefit the people of Texas, the nation, and indeed the world, for generations," Mr. Yudof said. "We are profoundly grateful for these extraordinary gifts."

The gift from the computer manufacturer's foundation was hailed as one of the largest ever given the UT System by a living donor. Gifts of $50 million by the Red McCombs family and Harold and Annette Simmons in Dallas helped establish the nationally renowned McCombs School of Business at UT-Austin and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

The $100 million Dell Pediatric Research Institute is to open in 2009 next to the new Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas, which is being finished just northeast of downtown Austin at the site of the city's old airport.

The center is expected to help the university and area medical facilities recruit top-flight pediatric specialists who otherwise might not come to Austin because it lacked a research institute or university positions, local children's health officials said.

Specialists there will collaborate with the six other medical campuses in the UT system, none of which is in Austin.

"The health of our own children and children throughout the world will soon benefit from cutting-edge research that will quickly be translated into the most advanced care for children," said Charles Barnett, president and chief executive officer of the Seton Family of Hospitals, a local hospital group.

The $67 million Dell Computer Science Hall on the UT campus is envisioned as a state-of-the-art building bringing together the five locations that currently house the university's computer-science department. Mr. Dell and university officials said the new building would help UT-Austin streamline and upgrade its programs, produce better research, and recruit faculty and students.

"It's important that our country remain competitive ... in science and technology," said Mr. Dell, who started his company by selling computers out of his dorm room at UT-Austin as a freshman and is now one of the world's wealthiest people. "And for Texas to be a breeding ground for great technology companies, great technology industry, and to attract the best and brightest minds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics."

The Dell foundation also earmarked $2 million for the Michael and Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living, which will be part of the UT-Austin School of Nursing and will be run by the UT Health Science Center in Houston.

The center will focus initially on childhood obesity prevention but branch out into other areas of child health and development.

E-mail kmbrooks@dallasnews.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News

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Source: The Dallas Morning News

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