UT Dallas’ fund-raising push to achieve Tier One status has netted $15.2 million in matching funds, the University’s share of money that lawmakers have set aside for the Texas Research Incentive Program (TRIP).

The University qualified for the funds after raising $16.9 million in private gifts in a competition with six other emerging research institutions aspiring to elite status.  The total was second only to the $24 million raised by Texas Tech University.

Under the Tier One law signed last summer, the TRIP fund provides matching dollars for donations specifically given for research purposes, including endowed chairs, professorships, graduate student fellowships or facilities. 

The greatest portion of the  $16.9 million in support for UT Dallas – almost $13 million – was in gifts of $100,000 and above from about a dozen donors. The remaining funds were raised through smaller gifts from a larger group of participants.

School of Management donor David L. Holmberg (right) confers with Dr. Aaron Conley, the University’s vice president of development and alumni relations. Holmberg was a 2009 recipient of the UT Dallas Distinguished Alumni Award.

David L. Holmberg was one of 13 donors who collectively gave $116,500 so it could be matched with $58,250 for a professorship in the School of Management. “I was very fortunate to go through the MBA program in 2000, which was at the height of the dot-com phase and there was extraordinary change going on,” said Holmberg, CEO and chairman of the board of Eye Care Centers of America in San Antonio. “One of the reasons I went back to school was so that I would be prepared to deal with those changes. When I was asked to help with this, I wanted to do what I could to make sure people have the skill sets they need to succeed in the business world.”

Hoping to affect the world around him, Edward Ackerman gave $200,000 toward “teaching history that is being forgotten,” in the UT Dallas Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies. “There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this period in our history. To me, it reminds Americans what a great country we live in.” His gift netted $100,000 in TRIP matching funds.

Gifts from nearly 60 donors to the Center for BrainHealth were bundled into a $4 million chunk that was matched dollar-for-dollar.

“With these added research dollars, BrainHealth scientists will be able to make advances in some of the most urgent brain concerns facing our nation,” said Dr. Sandra Chapman, the center’s founder and chief director.

The complete list of donors to UT Dallas is as follows.

UT Dallas donors at the $1 million level or higher:

Contributors of other gifts included in the total are:

  • Charles and Nancy Davidson, UT Dallas alumni from Houston, $250,000 to support the Davidson Professorships in the SOM.
  • UT Dallas Behavioral and Brain Sciences Professor Aage Moller and his wife, Margareta, $100,000 for  a professorship in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. This is his second such gift to support a professorship and part of a long record of giving to the University.
  • Communities Foundation of Texas, two gifts, $100,000 for a graduate fellowship in the Jonsson School and $116,500 for a professorship in the SOM.
  • The Dallas Foundation, $100,000, to support research in the School of Economic, Policy and Political Sciences.
  • The Philip Jonsson Foundation, $100,000 in support of the Jonsson Family Graduate Fellowship in Bioengineering in the Jonsson School.
  • Lockheed Martin, $120,000, for research support in the Jonsson School.
  • Southwestern Medical Foundation, $257,500 in research support to the Callier Center for Communication Disorders in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
  • Russell Cleveland, $100,000 for a professorship in guitar studies in the School of Arts and Humanities.