Nike Founder Phil Knight Donates $500 Million to University of Oregon for Science Complex

Nike founder Phil Knight and his wife Penny have given $500 million to the University of Oregon to build a high-tech science complex, the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. The university says they hope to solicit another $500 million in donations for the Knight Campus.

Knight says that he and his wife see a need for donations like this "in an age of declining public support for scientific research generally and declining public higher education support specifically.

"While not without risk, we believe the expected societal returns from such investments are high. And here at home in Oregon, we believe the potential to arm our talented young people with the skills and tools they will need to have a lasting impact on the world and to pursue rewarding careers makes such investments essential."

The donation is Knight's third donation in the hundreds of millions of dollars in the past three years. Three years ago, he and his wife committed $500 million for a cancer center at Oregon Health Sciences University. Earlier this year, he donated $400 million to Stanford University.

"This act of philanthropy from Phil and Penny Knight is breathtaking," said University of Oregon President and professor of law, Michael H. Schill. "This is a seminal moment for the University of Oregon, an inflection point that will shape the trajectory of the university for the next century and beyond."

The university says the Knight Campus will eventually consist of three new 70,000 square-foot buildings that will be the home to "cutting-edge labs, research facilities, prototyping tools, imaging facilities, human subject interaction space and an innovation hub."

The school says they will look for a prominent researcher to serve as director of the campus, oversee building design, and aggressive hiring campaign to attract top researchers.

"Thanks to this generous gift, we will aggressively recruit and hire talented new researchers to join our world-class faculty, amplifying what we do best—interdisciplinary scientific research. Equally important, the University of Oregon now has the resources to develop the infrastructure and support networks necessary to ensure that our best ideas and discoveries are quickly tested, refined, and developed into innovations that improve the human condition."

The school says they hope to have the first building open within three years although they are starting recruiting scientists immediately. The first hires will focus on people in the life sciences.

The university says that during consturction, the Knight Campus will contribute nearly $100 million to the Oregon economy and support 1,300 jobs. Once the campus is open, it will drive nearly $80 million in annual economic activity and support more than 750 family wage jobs.

Patrick Phillips, UO professor of biology, has been named acting executive director of the campus.

"The Knight Campus will be positioned at the intersection of science and society, working to create solutions for the greater good. Impact and speeding up the research-and-development cycle will be at the heart of everything we do," Phillips said.

As to how it will all work, the university offers the example of a geneticist using a fish discovers a new protein that appears to trigger an autoimmune disease.

Currently, they don't have a way to move this discovery to the next stage, the school says.

The school says that the new campus will provide scientists access to new kinds of researchers and entrepreneurs, all interacting within the same location, so that research discoveries can be quickly handed off to others to help move that discovery from the laboratory to the public.

Illustrations courtesy University of Oregon