Development is on pace to meet a goal of $65 million in FY2005. Midway through the fiscal year, approximately $30 million has been contributed, and the Spark Discovery campaign has raised more than $420 million toward the goal of $550 million. We are on schedule to reach $550 million by December 2006!

Recent contributions include commitments for three new endowed professorships:

* The Rabbi Morris I. Esformes Professorship will support faculty in endocrinology, gastroenterology, pediatric surgery, and radiation oncology.
* Friends and trustees Craig and Janet Duchossois, James Foley, Howard and Janys Krane, John and Martha Mabie, Dan and Jean Mohan, Tim and Carole Ozark, Bob and Floretta Weiss, and Bruce and Beth White have joined to endow a chair in honor of Herbert T. Abelson, M.D., former Chair of the Department of Pediatrics.
* Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum are funding a professorship in honor of Mark Siegler in support of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. The Center also received a generous commitment of $4 million from Mary Ann and Barry MacLean in recent months. These gifts launch a $12 million fundraising initiative that will underwrite a master's degree program and support fellowships. Over $8 million has been raised thus far.

The BSD also received $1 million from the estate of Harold Dubner, A.B. '34, M.D. '37, Ph.D. '39. Dubner passed away in September 2004 and left this gift to support scholarships for Ph.D. students in the BSD. The origin of his gift dates back to 1939, when Dubner received a solicitation letter from Dr. A.J. Carlson in the Department of Physiology, asking him to give $175 - $200 "when the fortunes of life enable" him to do so. Along with the gift of $1 million this December came a separate check for $200, fulfilling Dr. Carlson's original solicitation.

Several trustees and friends have hosted, or will soon host, events to introduce Chicago's programs and faculty to donors and prospective contributors. In December, Hospitals Trustee Jim Reynolds and his wife, Sandy, invited Dean Madara and Charles Brendler, M.D. to meet with guests in their home to hear about prostate cancer programs. Trustees Debbie Bricker and Terry Graunke will host a dinner with Conrad Gilliam, Ph.D., who will speak about genetics in late January; Trustee Valerie Jarrett will host a dinner focused on work in diabetes, with Anita Chong, Ph.D., and Lou Philipson, M.D., Ph.D., in early February; Suzanne and Gary Brinson will host a reception in their California home for Dean Madara this winter; and Trustee Lindy Bergman will host a dinner this spring for William Mieler, M.D.

On January 31, Mrs. Rod Blagojevich, Senator Barack Obama, Gary and Francie Comer, other donors, faculty and staff will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital.

Faculty will present forefront programs at three Discovery and Impact events this spring: “Epidemics and Emerging Diseases” with Bernard Roizman, Sc.D., Olaf Schneewind, M.D., Ph.D., and Robert Daum, M.D., on March 3; “Breast Cancer” with Funmi Olopade, M.D., Michelle Le Beau, Ph.D., Gillian Newstead, M.B., Ch.B., and Geoffrey Greene, Ph.D., on April 14; and “Minimally Invasive Surgery” with Valluvan Jeevanandum, M.D., Bruce Gewertz, M.D., and Richard Fessler, M.D., Ph.D., on May 12. The Discovery and Impact program, now in its second year, brings science and medicine at Chicago to a broad audience of prospective donors and decision makers in Chicago.

For more information about philanthropy and fundraising for the biological sciences, please contact Michele Schiele, Vice President and Associate Dean for Development, at (773) 702-4767 or at mschiele@mcdmail.uchicago.edu.

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