With the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the critical importance of biomedical research and new questions being raised about society’s capacity to generate world-changing scientific breakthroughs1, Roy and Diana Vagelos have made a $175 million gift to Columbia University to address this need.
The Vagelos Institute for Biomedical Research Education created with this gift will be home to PhD students pursuing the most creative, potentially disruptive ideas in biomedical science, and will spur the training of more physician-scientists able to translate the latest paradigm-shifting discoveries into revolutionary new methods in patient care.
According to the university’s announcement, the gift will enable it “to create a new academic model that encourages and accelerates the intellectual risk-taking needed to make historic advances in health science research. Supportive career pathways, promising stability and academic freedom, are being developed to attract more students and junior faculty to this essential endeavor.”
The Vagelos gift will be split in two portions. The largest, $125 million, will fund an endowment to support PhD students, providing them greater freedom to explore different interests at the start of their careers. The remaining $50 million will support aspiring physician-scientists seeking to develop expertise in both fundamental biology and clinical medicine.
Describing the financial support and leadership provided by Roy and Diana Vagelos to Columbia as “extraordinary,” Katrina Armstrong, Dean of the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences at Columbia, said, “the Vagelos Institute for Biomedical Research Education will have an enormous impact in harnessing the power of science to transform clinical care, and I believe we will see similar initiatives started at other university medical schools. The reward for this effort will be unprecedented strides forward in curing disease and treating illness. It’s an opportunity—and a responsibility—we must embrace.”
Roy Vagelos is the past Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Merck & Co. Currently, he is Chairman of the Board of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. The author of more than 100 scientific papers, Vagelos, who earned his MD from Columbia University, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Diana Vagelos is an alum of Barnard College, where she serves as vice chair of its Board of Trustees. The Diana Center, a hub of Barnard student life completed in 2010, is named in her honor.
Roy and Diana Vagelos have also been major benefactors for both Barnard College, to which they donated $55 million – the largest private gift in the institution’s history – in 2022 and the University of Pennsylvania, where the couple’s gifts have helped fund several academic programs in the sciences.
In 2010, the couple donated $50 million to the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, funding the construction of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center. And in 2017, Columbia renamed its College of Physicians and Surgeons to become the Roy and Diana Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in recognition of a $250 million gift the couple made to the college, which made it possible for Columbia’s medical school to become the first in the nation to offer debt-free education to students.
“Throughout my life I have seen the power of biomedical science to alleviate pain and suffering,” said Dr. Vagelos. “Our goal is to help talented people pursue these careers and seek answers to the most pressing health challenges before us. It’s up to all of us to support the next generation of researchers and physician scientists.”
Is The Pappas Post worth $5 a month for all of the content you read? On any given month, we publish dozens of articles that educate, inform, entertain, inspire and enrich thousands who read The Pappas Post. I’m asking those who frequent the site to chip in and help keep the quality of our content high — and free. Click here and start your monthly or annual support today. If you choose to pay (a) $5/month or more or (b) $50/year or more then you will be able to browse our site completely ad-free!
Click here if you would like to subscribe to The Pappas Post Weekly News Update
