Hard work, a little luck all played in UCI’s favor

It was a profitable week for UC Irvine.

In less than a week’s time, the school has received nearly $10

million in grants. It another one of the many ways UCI solidifies its

position as a formidable institution.

The smallest but most interesting came from a former faculty

member, Edward Thorp, who gave a $1-million donation to the math

department. The Newport Coast resident set up his gift with the same

ingenuity that he entered into several other profitable ventures.

Thorp, who used his math skills in the past to devise ways to win at

back jack and roulette as well as in the stock market, devised a way

to make his donation grow.

The gift is set up to attract a renowned mathematician, who might

have otherwise skipped over the UC school, to chair the department

with the rest of the money being reinvested.

While he was likely not popular in Las Vegas where he counted

cards and wore a device that told him where the roulette would land,

his talents are appreciated at UCI.

The university’s Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics was

awarded four grants totaling nearly $7 million, which includes a

five-year $4.9 million grant from the Frontiers of Integrative

Biological Research program, created by the National Science

Foundation. This grant was given to Eric Mjolsness, an associate

professor at UCI’s School of Information and Computer Science.

And to top that off the Russell Sage Foundation gave $1.7 million

for a study of the economic and social mobility of contemporary

immigrants and their offspring in the L.A. area.

While these donations went to entirely different areas, they

demonstrate the overall quality of UCI. Many schools don’t see one

such grant very often and this campus has the ability to attract

nearly $10 million in one week’s time.

UCI continues making a name for itself as a premier university in

Southern California.