Hong Kong’s billionaire Li Ka Shing, through his philanthropy foundation, has donated US$ 40 million to the University of California at Berkeley as a grant towards research into stem cells and brain imaging technology.
“I am a firm believer in the spirit of public-private partnership, and I am excited by the advanced work Berkeley is undertaking. The work and research being done there will result in phenomenal benefits to mankind,” said Li Ka Shing.
The donation would go towards the US$ 160-million research center that the university has planned. According to sources, the center, whose construction would begin 2007 and be completed by 2009, would be christened Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.
Besides studying stem cells, this center, which is part of the university’s Health Sciences Initiative, would also carry out extensive research on diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, HIV and AIDS, and dengue fever, among others.
“This is a major gift that not only sets us on the critical path to completing the building phase of the Health Sciences Initiative, but also represents a strong endorsement from a world-leading philanthropist for the innovative and progressive biomedical science program at UC Berkeley,” said the university’s chancellor Robert Birgeneau.
“With advances in molecular biology, genomics, stem cell biology, computer sciences, tissue engineering, chemistry and the physical sciences all converging on biomedical problems, UC Berkeley is poised with the best human resources to mount a coordinated attack on the killer diseases of the world,” said Robert Tjian, professor of molecular and cell biology at the university.
“The Health Sciences Initiative is essential for UC Berkeley and a great benefit to the world because, for the first time, we have been able to bring together in a highly collaborative and coordinated fashion the high quality research and teaching that traditionally spans disparate sets of disciplines – that is, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science and public health,” he added.
Ka Shing, who is Hong Kong’s richest man, has been named the 22nd richest man in the whole world by Forbes magazine. He owns Hutchison Whampoa Ltd and Cheung Kong Ltd.
The billionaire’s interest in philanthropy stems from his own childhood experience, when he had to discontinue his education due to his father’s death when he was 12 years old. In 1980, he established the Li Ka Shing Foundation to streamline his contributions to education, health and community programs.
