April 27, 2001
University Park, Pa.—Penn State’s efforts to build a new life sciences building have received a major boost from alumnus Paul Berg and his wife, Mildred, who have committed $1.5 million toward construction of the facility. Paul Berg is Cahill Professor Emeritus of Cancer Research at Stanford University and winner of a Nobel Prize in 1980 for developing a method to map the structure and function of DNA.

The new building will help Penn State meet steadily rising student enrollment in the life sciences, and provide more opportunities for research that impacts everyday life. Planned for a location on Shortlidge Road between Eisenhower Auditorium and the Joab Thomas Building, the facility will house state-of the-art classrooms and research laboratories, as well as offices, meeting and gathering spaces, and a 182-seat auditorium. The auditorium will be used primarily as a general instruction classroom for disciplines across the University, and for special events.

The Bergs’ gift for the Life Sciences Building is part of a larger commitment that also includes $1.2 million for an endowment that supports undergraduate student research in the life sciences. The Paul and Mildred Berg Undergraduate Research Endowment provides financial aid to Eberly College of Science life sciences majors who are also Schreyer Honors College students conducting research projects in faculty laboratories.

“As a Penn State alumnus, Paul Berg has already brought much distinction to the University by virtue of his internationally acclaimed achievements in biochemistry and related fields,” said President Graham Spanier. “We are deeply honored that he and Millie have decided to help Penn State provide more opportunities for instruction and research in the life sciences for the benefit of future generations of students and faculty.”

Daniel Larson, dean of the Eberly College, noted that “the generosity of Paul and Millie Berg will have a tremendous impact on the life sciences at Penn State both in the short- and long-terms. Their gift in support of the life sciences building is a crucial one that will allow construction to remain on track for occupancy in 2003. But far beyond 2003, those who use the facility—as well as the students whose research the Berg Endowment will support—will realize the impact of Paul and Millie’s philanthropy.”

Paul Berg graduated from Penn State in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. He received a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1952 and joined the Stanford faculty in 1959. At Stanford, he also serves as director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. He is widely regarded as a pioneer in the branch of biochemistry known as genetic engineering, and chaired the scientific advisory committee for the National Institutes of Health Human Genome Project from 1990 to 1992. Penn State named him a Distinguished Alumnus, the highest recognition it can bestow on one of its graduates, in 1972.

Contact:
Mike Bezilla 863-4512 (work) mxb13@psu.edu
Laura Stocker 863-4512 (work) lstocker@psu.edu