UCLA environmental studies receives $15-million donation

A $15-million donation to UCLA is going to bolster environmental studies and start a new prize for innovation in sustainability, officials announced Wednesday.

The charitable foundation of Los Angeles philanthropists Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker is giving the funds to the Westwood campus.

The $15 million will go to UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability to establish up to five faculty chairs and endow a center to research how to make cities more sustainable. It will also fund an annual $100,000 prize to inventors and policy-makers who advance sustainability.

The Pritzker foundation in recent weeks made $5 million in donations to UCLA in other areas.

UCLA students who are in or were in foster care will benefit from a $3-million endowment for grants to cover unexpected financial needs, according to a campus announcement. And $2 million will help expand arts programs for children and families at UCLA’s Hammer Museum.

“This wide-ranging gift is a powerful expression of how visionary philanthropy can impact diverse areas of our society,” UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement about the total $20 million in Pritzker donations.

Anthony Pritzker, of the family that founded the Hyatt hotels chain, is a leader of private equity and venture capital firms. He is chairman of the advisory board at the UCLA environment institute. His wife Jeanne founded Foster Care Counts, an organization that helps foster children.

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