Indian-American doctor couple
Saturday, 20/10/2012
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=53109&boxid=57074&uid=&dat=2012-10-20
An Indian-American doctor couple, Kiran C and Pallavi Patel, have donated $12 million to the University of South Florida in a new endowment aimed at creating the Patel College of Global Sustainability.
The endowment would expand on nearly a decade of world-leading applied research to advance sustainability around the globe and improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people, according to the Tampa, Florida based university.
Pending approval from university panels, the new college will elevate the work of the Patel School of Global Sustainability to a new level that allows it to build on its far-reaching portfolio of projects focused on improved urban systems, water and transportation.
The gift is the Patels’ latest contribution to the ongoing USF: Unstoppable fundraising campaign.
The new endowment brings the Patel’s contributions to USF to $25,798,329 through a series of donations and state matching funds in which the Patels have focused attention on sustainable global development and health care.
Past giving has supported the Kiran C Patel Endowment Fund; the construction of the Patel Centre for Global Solutions; the Kiran Patel Centre for Global Solutions Operating Fund and USF Health. Since 2010, the Patel School of Global Sustainability has served as a graduate-level programme in the education of new engineers, entrepreneurs and environmental managers to lead sustainability projects around the world.
“The Earth is God’s gift to humanity and we believe that the current generation must ensure that while meeting our present needs, we do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs,” the Patels said in a joint statement.
