October 09, 2007
$100-Million Donated to MIT for Cancer Research
By Anne Howard
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has received a $100-million pledge from David H. Koch — an executive vice president of Koch Industries and an alumnus — to build a new cancer-research center.
Ranked no. 9 on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of $17-billion, Mr. Koch, 67, is also a board member of Koch Industries, an investment and manufacturing company based in Wichita, Kan., that was founded by his father, Fred C. Koch.
The donor received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering at the Cambridge, Mass., institution. MIT plans to open the center in 2010 with 25 faculty members, a mix of molecular geneticists, cell biologists, and engineers that the university says is a rarely used approach to cancer research.
Mr. Koch, who is in remission from prostate cancer, said in a statement released by the university that “as a cancer survivor, I feel especially fortunate to be able to help advance this effort.”
Tyler Jacks, a biology professor, will direct the new David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, which will focus on five research areas: finding vulnerabilities of cancer cells, creating new nanotechnology paradigms for cancer treatment, exploring how tumors evade the immune system, studying the spread of the disease to other areas of the body, and working to diagnose and prevent cancer earlier in its progression.
In November last year, the Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, received a $20-million pledge from Mr. Koch, who earmarked that gift for a new cancer-research building on Johns Hopkins’s East Baltimore medical campus.
With this gift, he has given a total of $125-million to MIT for cancer research, and $5-million for other projects, including its School of Chemical Engineering and athletic facilities. He has served as a member of the institution’s Board of Trustees since 1988.
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