New Science Building, Labs at UCSB Thanks to $50M Gift by Oracle Philanthropist

Oracle Corporation is a Northern California computer technology giant with its world headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area's Silicon Valley. From its wildly popular OpenWorld tech conference event held annually in San Francisco to its America's Cup sailboat that can be seen tacking across the Bay to and from the Golden Gate Yacht Club on a nice day, Oracle maintains a strong presence in the Bay Area, even beyond its extensive Redwood City campus. But that doesn't mean the company's Chairman of the Board (and former CFO) Jeff Henley lacks the vision to see that one of California's great strengths as far as technology goes is in the University of California System, and that strength comes from leveraging its power and resources across the state. That's why Henley and his wife have just committed $50M to fund a new science building, labs and faculty salaries on the UC Santa Barbara campus, where Henley got his undergraduate education.

[Photo by Pedro de Arechavaleta, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons]

Giving to your alma mater is, of course, what many successful men and women do. Henley's $50M gift was unusual in its size (UCSB's largest ever) and included a call to action, reminding other potential donors that the UC System as a whole needs its philanthropic base more than ever in the wake of funding cuts by the State:

“The UC system is one of the crown jewels left in California -- it’s a huge economic powerhouse for the state,” Henley said in a Bloomberg article. “Donors need to keep stepping up like they do in private schools.”

The Henley gift will go towards building Henley Hall for the engineering school, which will house the Institute for Energy Efficiency and itself be a model of efficient design with state-of-the-art labs. $5M will go to recruit and pay faculty, and to purchase laboratory equipment. The Oracle Chairman's gift comes at a time when UCSB's academic reputation is on the rise, especially in the area of materials science (first in the nation among graduate programs) and engineering sciences. No longer limited to being perceived as a party campus, administrators and Henley himself hope to see other prominent alums and tech moguls support the university's capital campaign drive, which is now $718M along toward a $1B goal. Leading his peers by example, the UC System's 10 campuses may see the Bay Area's deep-pocketed philanthropic community rise to the occasion and follow Henley with further support for California's "crown jewels."

Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. is also based in Northern California and holds 13 popular life science sales tradeshows in California every year (plus our nationwide shows), all but one on University of California campuses. We invite laboratory scientists to come out and discover what our top vendor companies have on display in the way of new technologies. Shows are always conveniently-located on-campus, well-advertised, and offer a complimentary buffet. Here is a sampling of our California schedule, past and future:

• Santa Barbara BioResearch Product Faire Front Line event, April 3, 2012, UCSB campus (success!)
• Sacramento BioResearch Product Faire event, June 5, 2012, UC Davis Medical campus
• Berkeley BioResearch Product Faire event, June 6, 2012, UC Berkeley campus
• San Francisco Biotechnology Vendor Showcase event, June 7, 2012, UCSF Parnassus Campus
• Riverside BioResearch Product Faire event, August 22, 2012, UC Riverside campus
• San Diego Biotechnology Vendor Showcase event, August 23, 2012, UCSD campus

See our entire 2012 National Schedule, then call one of our friendly, knowledgeable sales associates to find out how to get on board.