Present from Ann S. Bowers ’59 generates new university of computing and facts science

A transformative reward from Ann S. Bowers ’59 – a Silicon Valley winner and longtime philanthropist – will create the Cornell Ann S. Bowers University of Computing and Facts Science, supporting Cornell’s preeminence in these fields.

Her 9-figure dedication will give the enabling help for the design of a new developing for the Faculty of Computing and Information Science (CIS). The making will accommodate sorely required progress in CIS, in which 50 % of all Cornell undergraduates get at least one particular class and enrollment is escalating at a rate unmatched wherever at the college. It will also finally offer major endowment support for college and college students in CIS.

Bowers led human means at Intel Company in the 1970s and was a person of Apple’s first vice presidents in the 1980s. She expended her profession creating and fostering an ecosystem the place technologists could thrive. It is consequently primarily meaningful that her gift supports CIS at Cornell, which, when established 21 a long time ago, was one particular of the nation’s very first packages to blend laptop science, with its emphasis on engineering, and information science, with its concentration on the ways engineering impacts humanity.

Ann S. Bowers ’59, whose present will build a new school of computing and details science.

Now, CIS also incorporates figures and knowledge science, and faculty from those people three departments will make up the new college or university. Learners who pursue its majors will utilize to Cornell by way of other schools, as they do now.

“Ann’s generosity and her passion for nurturing scholarship have presently touched the lives of many Cornellians,” President Martha E. Pollack stated. “This new gift produces so a lot of enjoyable possibilities for our college and students to learn and to create knowledge in a person of the ideal systems of computing and info science in the environment – just one that has normally emphasized both of those the layout and creation of engineering, and an comprehending of its social influence. The Cornell Ann S. Bowers University of Computing and Information and facts Science will be a fitting tribute to Ann’s many achievements.”

In addition to her expert accomplishments, Bowers has been an lively philanthropist for numerous several years. Right after the death of her husband, Robert Noyce, in 1990, the Noyce relatives set up The Noyce Foundation, in which Ann chaired the board. She has also been a longtime dedicated volunteer and generous benefactor for Cornell, offering far more than $20 million above three a long time.

Her influential gifts have provided guidance for the design of Gates Corridor – CIS’s recent property – as perfectly as for Cornell school and learners in the liberal arts, science, know-how, engineering and math, which include endowed professorships and research scholarships. She served as trustee and a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Females and a lot of Cornell advisory boards. She chaired the Cornell Silicon Valley Advisors, where by she passionately sought to provoke the university’s existence in her Bay Place neighborhood.

“The Cornell Ann S. Bowers University of Computing and Information Science will be a fitting tribute to Ann’s lots of achievements.”


President Martha E. Pollack

“Ann’s adore for Cornell, her working experience for the duration of the foundational times of Silicon Valley, her motivation to instruction in math and science – to me this reward is a charming coalescing of the several distinctive strands of her lifetime,” stated Bowers’s buddy and fellow alumni volunteer Rebecca (Beckie) Robertson ’82, who serves on the Cornell Board of Trustees and the Cornell Engineering Council, and labored with Bowers through the Cornell Silicon Valley Advisors. “She’s a really generous leader who cares deeply about mentoring the following technology.”

The new university will be the initial at Cornell named for a lady – a fitting honor for a school with a feminine dean, Kavita Bala, professor of computer system science at a university led by a female president, Pollack, who is also a laptop scientist and wherever 43% of CIS majors are gals, much over the national normal.

“The development of CIS was 20 decades ahead of its time. We considered computing and info technological innovation would have a profound effects on daily life and culture, and our unique multidisciplinary composition now serves as a product to other educational establishments,” Bala stated. “This is an remarkable time in technological know-how, with awesome opportunities and challenging issues. This exceptionally generous gift will propel Cornell to guide the way in addressing the technological and societal troubles of our time.”

Occasions celebrating the gift and the new faculty are staying planned for subsequent calendar year.