Posted on October 18, 2010

University of Southern California Receives $100 Million From Alumnus, Annenberg Foundation

The University of Southern California has announced a $50 million gift from alumnus and Cogent Systems founder Ming Hsieh to endow a new institute for cancer research and a $50 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation to support construction of a new building for the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Announced in conjunction with the inauguration of USC president C.L. Max Nikias, the gift from Hsieh will support the creation of the Ming Hsieh Institute for Research on Engineering-Medicine for Cancer, which will conduct research on nanoscale delivery platforms for drugs targeting cancerous cells and tumors. Researchers at the institute will work on encapsulating nanoparticles and other promising applications of nanotechnology and will seek to advance biomedical imaging to help determine the delivery and targeting efficiencies of nontechnology treatments and assess their effectiveness.

The grant from the Annenberg Foundation will be used to construct a new building on the USC University Park campus that will include state-of-the-art technologies, equipment, and collaborative spaces. While a construction timeline has not been set, the building will be named the Wallis Annenberg Hall in recognition of the gift. To date, the foundation has contributed a total of $350 million to USC.

"We are tremendously grateful to the Annenberg Foundation, Wallis Annenberg, and the Annenberg family for providing such transformational and magnificent support for the USC Annenberg School, and especially its journalism program," said Nikias. "The continuing partnership between the foundation and the school highlights our shared commitment to ensuring that USC will play the leading role in shaping the future of journalism and communication for our world."