Fifty years after Amy and Richard Wallman met at the University of Chicago while pursuing MBAs, the philanthropic couple have pledged $75 million to their alma mater. The commitment will take the form of a unique fundraising campaign that aims to raise $150 million to endow 30 new professorships at the school.
The donation from the Wallmans, who both graduated from the University of Chicago in the 1970s, is the largest-ever financial contribution received by the school for faculty chairs. The $75 million will be given out in matching donations towards new commitments of $2.5 million or more from others participating in the challenge. Each endowed professorship will be named after donors, while the entire resulting cohort of professors will be known as the Wallman Society of Fellows.
The new endowed professorships will enhance faculty resources and help the University of Chicago compete for scholars in specific fields, according to the institution. “We can look ahead to when 30 Wallman Fellows, with interests spanning the University from the humanities to molecular engineering, economics and public policy to biology and medicine, are at UChicago doing what we do best: defining new fields for knowledge that shapes the world,” Paul Alivisatos, president of the university, in a statement.
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