Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise announced Jan. 28 that the Grainger Foundation, of Lake Forest, Ill., has pledged $100 million to support the College of Engineering by establishing the Grainger Engineering Breakthroughs Initiative. The contribution is in memory and honor of William W. Grainger, a 1919 Illinois graduate in electrical engineering, and the founder of W.W. Grainger Inc.
“We are tremendously grateful for this extraordinary gift from the Grainger Foundation, which is an investment in the future of engineering, the future of our engineering faculty and students, and, indeed, an investment in the campus as a whole,” Wise said. “This transformative gift will ensure a chain reaction of possibilities that will fortify the campus as a pre-eminent, globally recognized institution.”
The Grainger Foundation, a long-term benefactor of the College of Engineering, has made this pledge to ensure the continued global standing of the engineering program by providing the support and infrastructure necessary for Illinois to lead the most important engineering breakthroughs of the future. The support will enable the college to continue its national leadership and enhance its global reach far into the future.
The resources from the Grainger initiative will support faculty members, students and facilities of the college. It also will allow the college to consistently and repeatedly create new engineering breakthroughs by investing in research areas of transformative impact to society and to attract and educate the engineering leaders of tomorrow.
A substantial portion of the Grainger Foundation gift will create an endowment for engineering chairs and professorships to attract and retain renowned scholars. The gift also will create an endowment to provide broad research support for high impact engineering research collaborations.
A portion of this gift also will provide the leadership gift to begin a $100 million fundraising campaign for an endowment for scholarships for students in the college and provide another lead gift for the $40 million renovation of the soon-to-be-vacated Everitt Laboratory.
