Portland State University Receives $3.9 Million Investment for Computational Science
(Portland, Ore.) Dec. 7, 2009 Portland State University (PSU) alumnus Fariborz Maseeh (FAHR-uh-borz mah-SEE) through his Massiah Foundation has made a $3.9 million philanthropic investment in computational science in PSUs Department of Mathematics and Statistics, which has been renamed the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Computational scientists create computer simulations and data analysis tools that predict the behavior of extremely complex systems that shape everyday life, such as the atmosphere, oceans, tectonic plates, airplanes, freeways, and cells and genes. This investment will allow the department to be more versatile and collaborative with other PSU departments and with many businesses in the broader Portland metropolitan region. A way to overcome economic and global competitive challenges, is to produce better talents in our society. Investing in better education will contribute to that, said Maseeh. With significant global competition facing us, now is the time to contribute to our educational institutions. Investments fostering collaboration between academia and business will lead to useful and practical breakthroughs in the future. I am honored to be a part of the transformation of PSUs Math and Statistics Department.
This gift, which comes from PSUs largest individual donor, will support upgrades in the departments facilities and will add three new faculty positions in computational science, five annual research fellowships, a lecture series, and symposium.
Once again Fariborz Maseeh is setting an example of excellence, said Wim Wiewel, president of Portland State. His generosity shows the way to making PSU the internationally competitive urban research university that Portland needs.
Maseeh is an internationally respected expert and entrepreneur in micro-electro-mechanical systems. He previously made an $8 million gift to the College of Engineering and Computer Science, which now bears his name. He has also been supporting scholarships and seminars at the Mathematics and Statistics Department for the past four years.
To promote internal and external partnerships and region-wide benefit, PSU will conduct national searches to recruit computational science faculty with track records of collaboration with the health sciences, finance, engineering, computer science, and other fields.
These scientists will create jobs at PSU and elsewhere in the region by attracting external funding for research and by partnering with other regional researchers and businesses to make our region more competitive.
In addition to renaming the department, PSU will recognize Maseehs gift by naming faculty positions supported by his gift the Maseeh Distinguished Chair in Computational Mathematics and the Maseeh Professors in Computational Mathematics. The graduate research fellowships supported by his gifts will be known as the Eugene Enneking Fellows, after one of Maseehs mentors at Portland State.
For more information, go to www.pdx.edu.
About Fariborz Maseeh
A first-generation American born in Iran, Fariborz Maseeh received both his B.S. in structural engineering and M.S. in mathematics from Portland State, an M.S. in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and has earned a doctorate of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Maseeh founded and later sold one of the worlds first and fastest-growing companies specializing in the custom design, development and manufacturing of tiny, micro-mechanical chips used in products ranging from cardiac pacemakers to aircraft landing gears. He serves on the advisory boards of a number of universities including MIT, PSU, UCI and USC.
About The Massiah® Foundation
Massiah Foundation was established to make innovative, transformational or charitable contributions in areas within its expertise that will result in broad public benefit mainly in education, health, or arts/culture. For more information visit www.massiah.com.
About Portland State University
Portland State University (PSU) serves as a center of opportunity for over 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Located in Portland, Oregon, one of the nations most livable cities, the Universitys innovative approach to education combines academic rigor in the classroom with field-based experiences through internships and classroom projects with community partners. The Universitys 49-acre downtown campus exhibits Portland States commitment to sustainability with green buildings, while many of the 213 bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees incorporate sustainability into the curriculum. PSUs motto, Let Knowledge Serve the City, inspires the teaching and research of an accomplished faculty whose work and students span the globe.
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2009/12/former_student_gives_portland.html
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/12/07/daily3.html
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/12/07/39-million-gift-for-psupdc-loses-2million-so-were-up-19-million-before-lunch
http://www.kgw.com/home/PSU-Gets-Huge-Donation-78733407.html