Governor Cuomo, Chancellor Zimpher Approve NYSUNY 2020 Plan for Stony Brook University

Stony Brook University Receives Largest Gift in SUNY History from Jim & Marilyn Simons

Stony Brook – Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher were on the Stony Brook University campus today to approve SBU’s NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant application, and join SBU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. to accept the largest gift in SUNY history from Jim and Marilyn Simons and the Simons Foundation.

The $150 million gift will be used to support academics across all disciplines and contribute to the cost of building and programming for a new Medical and Research Translation (MART) building on the University’s Health Sciences campus, a major component of the campus’s NYSUNY 2020 plan. The gift will also be used to hire new faculty, create endowed professorships, support scholarships, and fund a $1 million first-time Stony Brook alumni matching gift program.

"This is a win-win for Long Island's economy and students," Governor Cuomo said. "With NYSUNY 2020, we will further elevate Stony Brook as a leading research institution nationally and create thousands of jobs at the same time. We are also incentivizing public/private partnerships in cutting edge cancer research that will benefit both Long Island and the New York as a whole. I am proud of the investment we are making in Long Island's future and I applaud Long Island's elected officials and the Chancellor for partnering with us to make this project happen."

“Governor Cuomo challenged the SUNY university centers to help their communities overcome some of their greatest obstacles, and Stony Brook has risen to this challenge by putting forth a dynamic plan that maintains affordability, increases access, launches community partnerships, and builds a medical research facility that will expand the university’s research portfolio and create thousands of jobs,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “Jim and Marilyn Simons’ gift to the Stony Brook campus will enhance the university’s plan, and we are immensely grateful for their generosity. This is truly a proud day for Stony Brook University, for SUNY, and for all of New York State.”

“Today, everyone at Stony Brook University has reason to celebrate and an opportunity to excel,” said President Stanley. “This historic gift – coupled with the approval of our NYSUNY 2020 plan – challenges and enables Stony Brook to build upon its great faculty and programs throughout the University and further advance its mission of research, education, and discovery. So I know I speak for the entire Stony Brook family in expressing our eternal gratitude to Jim and Marilyn for their remarkable vision and their generosity. And I offer sincere thanks to Gov. Cuomo and the State Legislature for their stalwart commitment to our institution.”

The campus’s NYSUNY 2020 plan is designed to increase student access, attract and hire additional faculty and staff, launch economic development partnerships with industry in the Long Island region, and provide $35 million in capital challenge grant funds toward the construction of the MART center. Additionally, $50 million of the cost to build the MART will be supported by the Simons gift.

A portion of the Simons gift will also be dedicated to a 1:1 matching challenge grant from the Simons Foundation to benefit academics across the campus, with a focus on endowed professorships, young faculty support, graduate school fellowships, academic scholarships, and to encourage alumni giving.

Jim Simons chair of the Simons Foundation, Board chair of Renaissance Technologies LLC, and former chairman of Stony Brook’s Department of Mathematics. Marilyn Simons is an alumna of the University and president of the Simons Foundation.

The Simons family and the Simons Foundation have provided more than $300 million in contributions to Stony Brook over the past 20 years to support a number of academic initiatives, including the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, which was established with a $60 million gift in 2008. At that time, it was the largest gift to Stony Brook and any SUNY institution. Other contributions from the Simons and their Foundation have benefitted summer institutes on string theory, workshops, and a lecture series related to math and physics. In 2006, in the wake of federal funding cuts, the Foundation and a group of private donors from Renaissance Technologies made a $13 million contribution to maintain operations at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Brookhaven is co-managed by Stony Brook.

Programming for the MART will focus on research and care for those with cancer, Alzheimer’s, autism and other afflictions, as well as advanced medical imaging. The 250,000-square-foot facility will create 1,200 direct and indirect construction jobs and several hundred new specialized research jobs and will be located on the University’s Medical Center campus.

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating more than 467,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses with nearly 3 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu 

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