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In one of the largest gifts from individual donors ever made
to UCSF, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock have contributed $25 million
to endow a distinguished professorship for the UCSF chancellor
and to fund construction at UCSF Mission Bay.
Arthur Rock is founder of the San Francisco-based venture
capital firm Arthur Rock & Company and a legend in American
investment banking. Credited with coining the term "venture
capital," Rock established his reputation as a Silicon
Valley pioneer by helping to found such companies as Intel
Corporation, Apple Computer, Teledyne Inc., and Scientific
Data Systems. Rock is also president of the BASIC Fund, which
provides scholarships that enable inner city children to attend
private schools.
His wife, Toni Rembe, was on the management committee and
is managing partner in the tax department of Pillsbury Winthrop
LLP. She has served as president of the Commonwealth Club
and of the American Conservatory Theatre and is presently
chief executive officer of the Van Loben Sels/Rembe Rock Foundation.
A portion of the couple's gift will establish the Arthur
and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professorship, to be held
by UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, MD. The first of its
kind in the University of California system, this unique chancellorial
professorship will be passed on to future UCSF chancellors.
The remainder of the Rocks' gift will fund continued construction
of UCSF's Mission Bay campus.
In gratitude for their generosity, the University will name
the 171,000-square-foot Genetics, Development and Behavioral
Sciences Building at Mission Bay for the donors. Designed
by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli, Arthur and Toni Rembe
Rock Hall is the second research facility to open at UCSF
Mission Bay. Occupants and visitors enter the building through
a five-story atrium on their way to laboratories or one of
four multifunction seminar rooms.
The structure's shared facilities encourage interaction among
its 258 investigators in the related fields of human genetics,
developmental biology and developmental neuroscience. The
findings of these scientists are likely to open up new approaches
to the treatment of psychological disorders, neurodegenerative
diseases, addictions and other intractable illnesses.
"Arthur Rock has always had an eye for promising enterprises,"
says Bishop. "The Rocks' extraordinary commitment speaks
volumes about the caliber of work underway at UCSF and its
potential to transform medical science. We are profoundly
grateful for their far-sighted investment in this institution."
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