1-25-00

Contacts:

Colin Scanes, Plant Sciences Institute, (515) 294-1823
Tom Mitchell, ISU Foundation, (515) 294-4607
Teddi Barron, News Service, (515) 294-4778

IOWA STATE RECEIVES $3 MILLION GIFT FOR
PLANT SCIENCES CO-LABORATORY

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University will establish the Roy J. Carver Co-laboratory within its new Plant Sciences Institute with a $3 million gift.

The gift from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, Muscatine, Iowa, will support the $7 million facility that will function as the center of activity for the institute.

"The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust has long supported Iowa State University's initiatives. We are thrilled to have the Carver Trust's support for Iowa State's effort to establish one of the country's leading centers for plant science research," said ISU President Martin Jischke.

The co-laboratory will house administrative and faculty offices and laboratories for the Plant Sciences Institute. Scientists from all specializations in the institute will utilize the core technology of the Center for Plant Genomics, which will be located in the co-laboratory. The co-laboratory also will include a business incubator with laboratories for new and expanding Iowa biotechnology companies.

"The co-laboratory's focus on combining education, research and technological development accurately reflects Mr. Carver's commitment to the advancement of scientific knowledge. For this reason, we are pleased that this facility will bear Mr. Carver's name and will house the endeavors that will assist in furthering his vision," said Troy Ross, executive administrator of the Carver Trust.

"The Carver Co-Laboratory will provide students, faculty, scientists and industry with an environment designed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration on leading-edge research in the fundamental plant sciences," said Colin Scanes, interim director of the Plant Sciences Institute.

"It will enable Iowa State to attract the best minds in the plant sciences."

The ISU Plant Sciences Institute consists of eight research centers that focus on a variety of areas related to the plant sciences, including bioinformatics, plant genomics, designer crops and gene research. The institute builds on Iowa State's existing strengths in plant sciences to develop world leadership in the use of biotechnology to enhance the value of crops and supply value-added plant materials to new and expanding markets.

In addition to the Carver Charitable Trust, funding sources for the co-laboratory are ISU's College of Agriculture, Department of Agronomy, Plant Sciences Institute, Agriculture Experiment Station, Office of the President, Office of the Provost, College of Engineering and ISU Research Foundation.

The Carver Charitable Trust, which is the largest private foundation in the state of Iowa, was created through the will of Roy J. Carver, a Muscatine industrialist and philanthropist who died in 1981.

With its $11 million in gifts to Iowa State, the Carver Trust is one of the largest donors in the university's history, said ISU Foundation President Tom Mitchell. The gifts have funded many of ISU's highest priorities, including the Roy J. Carver Scholarship Program. Previous Carver Trust gifts include: $1 million to the Engineering Teaching and Research Complex, $900,000 to create the Roy J. Carver Center for Biological Scanning Probe and Laser-Based Microscopy, $900,000 for development of image-guided surgery techniques, $500,000 to establish a High-Speed Communications Circuit Lab in the College of Engineering and $378,000 to retool the Undergraduate Electronic Commons in Parks Library.

Carver Trust's $3 million gift is part of the ISU Foundation's Campaign Destiny: To Become the Best, a $425-million campaign that is the largest in university history. Scheduled to end in June, the five-year campaign is raising financial resources that are critical to advancing Iowa State's aspiration to become the best land-grant university in the nation.

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