Caltech's Medical Engineering Department Receives $30M Donation From Panda Express Founders

PASADENA, CA -- The founders of the Panda Express fast-food restaurant chain have donated $30 million to Caltech in support of the university's medical engineering department, Caltech announced Tuesday.

In recognition of the donation, the department will be renamed the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering.

"We wanted our first major commitment to make a meaningful connection, so we gave to a school that is located in the same city where we started," Andrew Cherng said.

The Cherng family business, started with Andrew's father Ming-Tsai Cherng, began with the 1973 opening of Panda Inn in Pasadena. Panda Restaurant Group now has about 2,000 Panda Express locations around the world.

Peggy Cherng, who has a master's degree in computer science and a doctorate in electrical engineering, has been a member of the Caltech Board of Trustees since 2012.

"We are here to build the American dream, but not just for us," she said. "We want to give to the right cause, and medical engineering will help others. I see Caltech helping to create a bright future ahead."

Caltech President Thomas Rosenbaum called the couple's story "a quintessential example of success rooted in Pasadena and impact felt across the world."

"In the same way, their extraordinary gift to support the country's first medical engineering department here at Caltech will enable new discoveries and cures, rippling out to improve human lives everywhere," he said.

-- City News Service, photo courtesy of Caltech