Microsoft's Gates and Ballmer contribute to state-of-the-art facility

Microsoft founder and Chairman William H. Gates III and Microsoft Executive Vice President Steven A. Ballmer are giving the University $25 million to benefit research and teaching in computer science and electrical engineering. Gates and Ballmer are members of the Harvard College Class of 1977.

With $20 million of the gift Harvard will construct a state-of-the-art facility for research and teaching. The building will be named Maxwell Dworkin in honor of the donors' mothers, Mary Maxwell Gates and Beatrice Dworkin Ballmer.

In addition, $5 million will support research and endow a faculty chair.

The new facility will give Harvard the opportunity to expand substantially the scope of its computer science and electrical engineering activities. The new building -- including classrooms, seminar rooms, offices, and laboratory space -- will bring together Harvard's computer science and electrical engineering programs in a single location, thereby enhancing collaboration and providing adequate space to accommodate burgeoning student interest in the concepts and methods on which the Information Age is based.

"Universities have played a major role in the development of the Internet and many other important technologies," said Gates. "Steve and I are excited to help Harvard advance this program in ways that will contribute directly to the phenomenal innovation underway today in the information technology field, and to the close examination of its impact on society. This program will promote an interdisciplinary approach that will encourage great ideas from a diverse group of smart people working closely together."

With a new building and a new endowment, Harvard faculty and students will be able to expand their contributions to the continuing parade of innovations presented by the computer and communications revolution, and -- with students and faculty from other parts of the University, as well as visitors -- to conduct more intensive studies of the major societal challenges posed by the information explosion.

"This gift represents a major advance for computer science at Harvard, and it also underscores the growing importance of computers and information technology in education as well as in society," said President Neil L. Rudenstine. "Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have made it possible for Harvard to move strongly forward with the next phase of our plans to achieve an even higher level of quality, and a larger critical mass of excellent faculty, in fields of study that are central to the University's goals for the future. We are deeply grateful to them for their exceptional generosity and their confidence in what can now be achieved."

"For more than five years we have planned a stronger presence in electrical engineering and computer science at Harvard: dramatically, now, this plan becomes a reality," said Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles. "The splendid generosity of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer has secured our future, and given a new shape to the College where they both began. Their gifts will provide new space and new faculty, and will expand the range and lift up the quality of opportunities for our students."

Harvard's program in computer science and electrical engineering has a core group of faculty, renowned for its contributions to artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, computer security, computer networking, computing theory, distributed systems, programming systems, systems engineering, and robotics.

"The gift by Gates and Ballmer promises to have a transforming impact on Harvard's contributions to computer science and electrical engineering during the 21st century," said Harry R. Lewis, Dean of Harvard College and Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science. "The new facility will include classrooms and laboratories where our students can work with and learn from the faculty who are shaping future directions in computing and communications. We are all extremely grateful to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, who have had such a profound impact on the development of information technology in the world, for their vision in providing a basis for Harvard's excellence in this field in the future."

At present, Harvard's faculty in computer science and electrical engineering are located in several buildings. Offices, laboratories, and graduate student space for individual faculty members are often in different areas. Available space has been exhausted as all attic and basement spaces have been converted to use. There is currently no space to accommodate new faculty appointments.

This physical dispersion is to the "intellectual detriment" of the field, said Dean Lewis. "One of the things this gift will do is enable us to create some intellectual unity as we bring together students and faculty who are interested in computer science and electrical engineering."

According to Paul C. Martin, Dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the John Hasbrouck Van Vleck Professor of Pure and Applied Physics: "Few advances in science and technology have had as broad an impact on society as computers and electronic communication are having now. Studies of the foundations of the technology and its implementation should be closely linked to studies of applications and their societal impact."

Martin added, "This building will bring our own faculty under one roof and, equally importantly, provide a center in which they and others can study computers and communications on a broader scale. At Harvard, we intend to make a unique contribution by working simultaneously on the technology and software for making communications faster, more secure, more reliable, and easier to use, and on the educational, legal, economic, and social impact of these advances."

Currently, Harvard's Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences has 369 undergraduate concentrators, 26 master's students, and 141 Ph.D. candidates working toward degrees in computer science, engineering sciences, applied mathematics, and applied physics.

Ballmer has served on the Harvard Board of Overseers since 1991. He is a member of the Visiting Committee to the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences and is on the University's standing committees for alumni affairs and development; natural and applied sciences; and schools, the College, and continuing education. An active fundraiser for Harvard, Ballmer is co-chairman of the Class of 1977's fundraising efforts, co-chairman of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences West Coast Major Gifts Steering Committee, and a member of the Committee on University Resources campaign executive committee.