The Helen Diller Foundation has granted $500 million to UC San Francisco.

“Of this, $100 million will be used to retain outstanding current professors and recruit preeminent faculty to UCSF by funding Helen Diller Distinguished Professorships…With the knowledge of dependable funding, Helen Diller Professors will have the opportunity to pursue research, initiate new lines of inquiry, teach and mentor students and younger colleagues, spend more quality time with patients, and take on the most difficult cases…

The additional $100 million of endowment will provide crucial start-up money for the Helen Diller Faculty Scholars program for early- and mid-career scientists. More and more, philanthropy plays a crucial role in helping young faculty launch their academic careers. Helen Diller Faculty Scholars will receive at least $150,000 annually to establish laboratories, buy equipment, hire graduate students and postdocs, and generate the research results that lead to long-term funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health…

$100 million will create an Innovation Fund, which can be drawn on, over time, at the discretion of UCSF’s current and future chancellors…Discretionary funds also enable the chancellor to direct support toward other urgent areas of high-risk, high-reward research with potential global consequences…”