RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
Streamers, singers and the Big Red Marching Band celebrate the single largest gift to the Ithaca campus from individual donors.
Patricia and David Atkinson enjoy a standing ovation for their gift. See larger image
$80 million gift to Ithaca campus aims to make world a more sustainable place
With a historic commitment of $80 million, David R. Atkinson '60 and his wife, Patricia, have created a permanent center on campus that will cultivate innovative collaborations in sustainability research and education on campus and far beyond.
The gift, the single largest to the Ithaca campus by individual donors, positions Cornell to be a global leader in the effort to create a sustainable future.
David Atkinson '60 See larger image
Cornell President David Skorton announced the gift Oct. 28 in Statler Auditorium following a panel discussion on sustainability.
"David Atkinson's historic gift provides a permanent Cornell base for stimulating and coordinating the university's unfolding capabilities in sustainability," Skorton said. "It represents a very significant investment in our most valued resource: people – faculty, staff and students – with the mission of achieving world impact and leadership in sustainability. Cornell aspires to be a leader in efforts to create a bright future for our world: for our children, grandchildren and generations to follow."
Patricia Atkinson See larger image
The gift builds on the success of the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future, which was created in 2007 with initial support from the Atkinsons. The center has been renamed the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (ACSF).
David Atkinson said that new ideas and collaborations are vital in a time of exploding global population and dramatic economic growth. "Cornell is the best-positioned university in America, and arguably the world, to develop solutions," Atkinson said.
The center will be "a source of unbiased information; a catalyst bringing knowledge from different disciplines together to address sustainability; and a partner with entrepreneurs, businesses, NGOs and governments to magnify the impact of the knowledge and ingenuity at Cornell in moving society toward a more sustainable future," he said.
President David Skorton, David Atkinson '60 and students. See larger image
It will also be a focal point for sustainability-related activity on campus, including education, operations, outreach and research.
"The center provides the means and programs to build new, multidisciplinary collaborations and the external partnerships needed to tackle important and complex problems," said Frank DiSalvo, the center's director and the J.A. Newman Professor of Physical Science.
In a panel discussion moderated by DiSalvo preceding the gift announcement, Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp said that Cornell has an opportunity to lead the current discussion and help shape the next generation of sustainability leaders.
"Great universities like Cornell need to speak up about global warming. There's an ethical dimension here," Krupp said. "There's also the opportunity for Cornell to be involved in a way unique in American universities – to create the examples and the constituents that make policy."
Panelist Sheryl WuDunn '81, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, business executive and a Cornell trustee, added that economic development – and the role of women in that development – is an often-overlooked but vital piece of the sustainability puzzle. Along with research in energy and the environment, the ACSF's mission includes a dedicated focus on economic development.
David and Patricia Atkinson are longtime supporters of sustainability at Cornell. Earlier this year, David Atkinson was elected a presidential councillor, the highest honor the university can bestow.
A graduate of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Atkinson has held various posts in the financial industry, including as founder of Atkinson & Co., general partner of Miller, Anderson & Sherrerd LLP, vice president in the research department of Morgan Stanley, and co-founder of Franklin Capital Investors.
From left, Frank DiSalvo, Sheryl WuDunn '81, Armando Olivera, Fred Krupp and Rich Delaney during a discussion Oct. 28 in Statler Hall. See larger image
Patricia Atkinson is a graduate of the University of Southern California. She is active with the Princeton Hospital Auxiliary, for which she has served as membership chair and treasurer. She was also a longtime volunteer for the Princeton Meals on Wheels Program.
The son of a New Jersey poultry farmer and agri-businessman whose formal education ended in ninth grade, David Atkinson said he is grateful for the opportunity to strengthen Cornell's leadership role in sustainability.
"I think this center will be great for Cornell," Atkinson added, "just as Cornell was, and is, great for me."