Hucks make $20 million commitment for support to life sciences

Hucks make $20 million commitment for support to life sciences

Dorothy and Lloyd Huck

University Park -- Penn State alumni J. Lloyd and Dorothy F. Huck have announced their intention to provide a $20 million endowment to support teaching, research and other academic activities at the University's Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. The Huck Institutes, a consortium involving about 500 faculty from eight Penn State colleges, is dedicated to preparing students and strengthening research in the life sciences across disciplinary boundaries.

The consortium was named for the Hucks in 2002, in recognition of their outstanding leadership and past philanthropic support for biotechnology, medicine and other disciplines associated with the life sciences at the University.

The Hucks are members of Penn State's class of 1943 and longtime University benefactors. Including this latest commitment, which they have made as part of their current and estate plans, their total philanthropy to Penn State exceeds $40 million.

"Even before their most recent gift commitment, Lloyd and Dottie Huck's support has played a key role in elevating Penn State's national and international stature as a leading center for the study of the life sciences," said Penn State President Graham B. Spanier. "This new endowment will take the Huck Institutes to a new level of excellence by providing resources that we could not even have imagined just a few years ago.

"They saw a potential for greatness in the work of the faculty and students of the Huck Institutes, and we are deeply grateful for their generosity in transforming that potential into reality."

Annual income from the Endowment for the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences is projected to provide support for the director of the institute, additional chairs and/or professorships for faculty affiliated with the institutes, seed-grant funds for promising research initiatives, fellowships for graduate students and general programming such as symposia and guest speakers that contribute to the institutes' intellectual climate and overall professional and public visibility.

"Penn State has advanced tremendously since Dottie and I were students," Lloyd Huck noted. "It now clearly stands among the best universities in America, if not the world. The life sciences work being done in disciplines ranging from immunology and genomics to toxicology and neurosciences holds tremendous promise for understanding and solving some of society's most perplexing challenges."

Dorothy Huck added, "Since moving to State College a few years ago, Lloyd and I have both taken classes at the University. It's exciting to be in the classroom again, and we're very impressed by the faculty and students we meet. We hope this gift in an area of study important to both of us will long serve and support the generations who follow us."

The Huck Institutes encourages collaborative research through a variety of mechanisms, such as funding graduate students enrolled in its multidisciplinary, inter-college degree programs; cooperating with faculty across the academic colleges to identify emerging areas of research importance; and encouraging new and current faculty to participate in collaborative and multidisciplinary efforts. The Huck Institutes also supports research through the use of state-of-the art shared technology.

Lloyd Huck, retired chairman of Merck & Co., is a University Trustee Emeritus, having served on the board 1977-92, and as its chair, 1988-90. He led the drive in the 1980s to raise funds to build Wartik Laboratory and later served as member of the steering committee that led the University's Grand Destiny campaign, which raised $1.37 billion for programs University-wide.

Dorothy Huck has served in volunteer fundraising leadership posts on behalf of the University Libraries and the College of Health and Human Development.

The Hucks' previous philanthropy to Penn State has included major gifts to the Eberly College of Science, the College of Health and Human Development, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, the University Libraries and The Smeal College of Business Administration.

Visit http://live.psu.edu/video/13 to see a brief video about the Hucks and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.