A $20 million gift from Philip and Cheryl Milstein to the Columbia University Medical Center was announced recently. The donation will be used as part of an effort to rejuvenate the medical campus with construction of the Medical & Graduate Education Building on Haven Street between West 171st and West 172nd Streets. Administrators at Columbia University Medical Center said the building will include “innovative classroom and study spaces that will incorporate state-of-the-art information technology while facilitating collaborative, team-based learning.” The new building’s function will be the training of students in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the biomedical science departments in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. (Read our earlier blog on this new construction project at CUMC here.)
The Milsteins have a long history of supporting Columbia University through philanthropy, and their gifts have benefited the medical center especially.
“Over a lifetime of exceptional accomplishment, Philip Milstein has maintained an enduring commitment to his alma mater, and for that Columbia will be forever grateful,” said University President Lee Bollinger. “This latest gift extends the family’s ongoing commitment to ensuring world class medical training and the highest quality health care that saves lives and finds new cures.”
According to the Columbia Daily Spectator, the Milstein’s donation is the most recent of a number of gifts to the Columbia University Medical Center. Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently donated $25 million in February to support amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Roy and Diana Vagelos gave another gift in 2010 to fund a new education building.
Columbia University
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
In addition to receiving funding from the Milsteins, Columbia University also receives a large amount of research funding from the NIH and NSF. According to these research funding statistics, Columbia University is a wealthy market for laboratory equipment sales. In 2012, Columbia University received $459 million from the NIH and NSF. The NIH gave the university $364 million. The funding was spread out over a vast number of life science research projects in a variety of disciplines, including biochemistry, biology, biomedical engineering, biostatistics, genetics, internal medicine, microbiology, neurosciences, pathology, pharmacology and physiology.
Columbia University also received a great deal of research funding from the NSF. In 2012, the NSF gave Columbia $95 million. Of the life science research projects receiving funding, the programs included genetic mechanisms, macrosystem biology, behavioral systems, climate change, neural systems, plant genome research, molecular biophysics, systems and synthetic biology, cellular dynamics and function, and systematics and biodiversity science.
Given the most recent $20 million gift to Columbia University Medical Center as well as recent funding statistics, it’s clear that the laboratory equipment sales market is doing very well at Columbia University. Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. invites all lab suppliers and biotechnology vendors to meet others in their field at Columbia University at our annual Armory Track and Field Center BioResearch Product Faire™ Event, adjacent from the Columbia University Medical Center, on October 1, 2013. Biotechnology Calendar Inc. is a full-service life science research marketing and events-planning company that runs trade shows at top research universities across the country. For more information on Columbia University funding statistics, click on the button below. If you’re interested in learning about a laboratory equipment sales market closer to home, we encourage you to check out our 2013 calendar of events.
