Stewart and Lynda Resnick, whose companies include Halos marketer The Wonderful Co., are pledging $750 million to Caltech, for sustainability research.
The funds will support Caltech’s environmental sustainability research, and is the largest commitment to fight climate change, according to a news release.
The money will be used to pursue research in:
- Solar and climate science;
- Energy and biofuels;
- Decomposable plastics;
- Water and environmental resources; and
- Ecology.
“In order to comprehensively manage the climate crisis, we need breakthrough innovations, the kind that will only be possible through significant investment in university research,” Stewart Resnick, chairman and president of The Wonderful Co., said in the release. “Science and bold creativity must unite to address the most pressing challenges facing energy, water and sustainability.”
Caltech plans to build the 75,000-square-foot Resnick Sustainability Research Center, which will be home to the Pasadena university’s energy and sustainability research and undergraduate teaching labs. The center will also further The Wonderful Co.’s commitment to environmental technologies and sustainability research, according to the release.
The Resnicks and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation established the Resnick Sustainability Institute at the university 10 years ago, with a $30-million contribution.
“The discoveries, inventions and innovations that will be spanned by this incredible pledge will be transformative,” Steven Chu, co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics and former Secretary of Energy under President Barack Obama, said in the release. “The generosity of Stewart and Lynda Resnick is a lasting commitment for the future well-being of our children, our grandchildren and our planet.”
The pledge includes a $400 million donation to the university, and a $350 million sponsored research agreement, according to the release.
“The Resnick Sustainability Institute will now be able to mount efforts at scale, letting researchers across campus follow their imaginations and translate fundamental discovery into technologies that dramatically advance solutions to society’s most pressing problems,” Caltech President Thomas Rosenbaum said in the release.
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