$4.5 Million Bequest to Benefit NC State Students, Faculty in Applied Mathematics

An anonymous couple has made a $4.5 million bequest to the College of Sciences Foundation to benefit students and faculty in applied mathematics. The gift commitment, which will be funded from the donors' estate, is one of the largest ever received by the College of Sciences.

The gift will endow a $2.5 million distinguished faculty chair, a $1.5 million undergraduate scholarship fund and a $500,000 graduate fellowship, all in the Department of Mathematics.

"This gift has the ability to rapidly advance our research, teaching and scholarship in applied mathematics," said M. Christine McGahan, dean of the College of Sciences. "We are incredibly grateful to these donors for their generous support of our faculty and students."

The distinguished faculty chair created by the gift will give the department the ability to recruit a top scholar in applied mathematics. In today's dollars, the gift will provide about $100,000 each year to advance the faculty member's research, help fund graduate students, subsidize travel to important conferences, and facilitate participation in other scholarly and research activities.

The scholarship fund will provide approximately six full-tuition scholarships for recruiting top undergraduates in applied math. The fellowship will help department recruit talented graduate students.

"This is a transformational gift for applied mathematics at NC State," said Alina Chertock, head of the Department of Mathematics. "Thanks to this generous couple, we'll be able to recruit the very best students and faculty who use mathematical methods toward applications in industry, engineering, computing and other branches of science."

The gift commitment was made as part of NC State's $1.6 billion Think and Do the Extraordinary campaign . The college has raised 70 percent of its $60 million campaign goal. The campaign ends on Dec. 31, 2021.