A member of a pioneer San Francisco family, Daniel Koshland Jr., has given the Weizmann Institute of Science $8 million to lure outstanding postdoctoral scholars to the Rehovot, Israel, campus.
Koshland’s is the largest single gift the institute ever received from a Bay Area donor.
It will establish and endow the new Koshland Center for Basic Research, which will accord scholars an ample allowance and a personal grant “to be utilized freely at their own discretion,” according to Diane Portnoff, Bay Area regional director of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute.
Discussing the gift, Portnoff said, “It’s very big and very wonderful. It’s important not just on its pure dollar value. It’s relatively easy to give money to an ongoing program, but to start something from scratch is another matter.”
Three scholars — one from Israel, one from the United States, one from Russia — have been designated as the first recipients.
Koshland, 79, a molecular and cell biologist and a descendant of the owners of San Francisco’s Levi Strauss company, is a professor of biochemistry at U.C. Berkeley and a former department chair. The former editor of Science magazine, he has won numerous awards for his research into the molecular basis of memory.
A resident of Lafayette, he said he was taught from an early age he should not only expect to work but to “contribute to society.”
Family members “were told we were extremely lucky and had an obligation to share the benefit of our education and our wealth with others,” he said in a Jewish Bulletin interview some time ago. He also said he held his five children to the same standard.
A longtime Weizmann supporter, Koshland “has always had a preference for supporting young scientists,” Portnoff noted.
Koshland, vice president of Weizmann’s American Committee and an active member of the institute’s board of governors, in 1984 received an honorary doctorate from the institute in recognition of his contributions as a “concerned friend and mentor of a generation of Weizmann Institute scientists.”
He is also chair emeritus of the Bay Area region of the American Committee.
Koshland just returned from Israel, where the institute celebrated its jubilee year — the 50th anniversary of its renaming for the first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann.
Although Koshland was born into one of the city’s premier business families, he has said he felt no pressure to devote his career to Levi Strauss. He was the first in his family to become a scientist. His late wife, Marian, an immunologist, was also a professor at U.C. Berkeley.
More than 1,000 research projects are under way at the Weizmann Institute. Among its research achievements:
*Isolation of a possible precursor to colon cancer.
*A non-invasive technique for differentiating between benign and malignant breast tumors.
*Groundbreaking work in cryptography, or analysis of Internet codes and how they may be cracked.
*All three currently used treatments for multiple sclerosis.
In addition, the institute has indirectly generated $1 billion for Israel through companies created as the result of Weizmann research, which is licensed for commercial development and marketing worldwide.
Candidates for the Koshland awards can be scholars in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science and biochemistry. All must be nominated by a Weizmann professor.
The Koshland donation will not only “strengthen the Weizmann Institute but also the capability of the state of Israel to maintain its position as a world leader in science and technology,” said Helen Diller, the American Committee’s Bay Area regional chair.
Added Haim Harari, president of the institute, “Dan Koshland’s gift not only demonstrates his tremendous generosity and kindness. Because it comes from a world-renowned scientist, Dan’s gift is a priceless statement to all of us.”
While Koshland’s donation will enhance postgraduate research, another gift in honor of the institute’s anniversary will augment science learning for Israel’s young.
Six days before Koshland announced his donation, Guardian Industries Corp. in Michigan pledged $20 million.
That gift, which will establish a Davidson Institute of Science Education, also will alter science teaching throughout Israel — and possibly in other countries as well. The Israeli Ministry of Education is providing matching funds to develop new curricula, teaching methods and materials.
William Davidson of Detroit, Guardian’s president and CEO, has been involved in supporting the Weizmann Institute for 14 years. He is also managing partner of the Detroit Pistons NBA team, and has supported numerous educational programs, including a mentoring program for inner-city youth in Michigan.
Martin Kraar, executive president of Weizmann’s America Committee, called Davidson “a visionary philanthropist who understands the enduring value of reforming science education.” He added, “His gift will touch the lives of millions of young people.”