Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, have donated one billion dollars to the University of Oregon. University officials announced the gift on September 24, 2026, describing it as la più grande donazione mai effettuata a favore di un’università pubblica multidisciplinare
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According to reports from the New York Times and The Guardian, the funds will be used to create a new engineering college in Eugene, located in Lane County. The new structure will be housed at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.
La Nuova Facoltà di Ingegneria
In a press statement, the University of Oregon explained that the new structure will serve to formare ingegneri e scienziati applicati nei campi della bioingegneria e di altre discipline ad alta richiesta, ad attrarre docenti e ricercatori in un campus in espansione e ad accelerare la capacità dell’ateneo di trasformare le scoperte di laboratorio in prodotti, terapie, tecnologie e imprese
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University President Karl Scholz expressed his gratitude in a note, stating that the Knight couple has una lunga storia di fiducia in progetti ancora inesistenti
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Gli Altri Impegni della Famiglia Knight
Phil Knight, who is 88 years old, is a former student of the university. This latest contribution brings the total known donations from the Knight family to the University of Oregon to over two billion dollars, according to the New York Times.
The university specified in its Wednesday press release that this is the third major commitment made by the Knights over the past decade. It follows previous donations of 500 million dollars in 2016 and 2021, which enabled the creation and expansion of the Knight Campus.
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