$10 Million Gift to Support Faculty and Curricular Excellence, Scholarships
Grinnell College announced today that a $10 million estate gift from the Robert N. Noyce Trust will establish an endowed chair in computer science, a fund for curricular development, an endowed scholarship, and an endowed fund for scientific equipment, as well as support the Pioneer Fund, which addresses the College’s most pressing needs.
“As one of the key founders of technologies that shape how we live and learn, communicate and collaborate every day, Robert Noyce exemplified the power of imagination and the courage to seize opportunities with transformational potential,” says President Anne Harris. “This gift from his wife Ann Bowers not only honors Robert’s devotion to Grinnell but also provides generations of Grinnellians with support to meet challenges and rise to opportunities that haven’t yet been imagined.”
Ann Bowers graduated from Cornell University in 1959 and became one a handful of women who held top leadership positions in the emerging technology sector, serving as director of personnel for Intel Corporation in the 1970s and the first vice president of human resources at Apple Computer. Throughout her life she advocated for creating organizations where science, technology, and innovation could thrive. In 1990, she became chair of the board and co-founding trustee of the Noyce Foundation upon her husband’s death, where she focused on improving math and science instruction and learning in K-12 public schools.
She was also a transformational philanthropist and advocate, supporting computer science faculty innovation and student scholarships at Cornell where the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science was named in her honor. She was a valued and impactful board member for multiple nonprofit organizations focused on education and the arts, including Grinnell College where she was a trustee from 1991 to 1992.
Robert Noyce grew up on a farm near Grinnell and graduated from Grinnell High School. He began studying early transistors developed at Bell Laboratories while at Grinnell College. Guided by Professor Grant O. Gale, Noyce graduated in 1949 with degrees in physics and mathematics and went on to earn his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Twelve years later, he was awarded the first patent for his principal discovery of the integrated circuit. For this discovery and its world-transforming impact, he was honored by three presidents of the United States. As a co-founder of the Intel Corporation, he became one of the giants of the technology revolution and an advocate for the power of private enterprise to transform industries and economies.
In 1979, he was awarded the National Medal of Science. In 1990, the National Academy of Engineering awarded Robert Noyce its Draper Prize. Throughout his life, Noyce was a loyal alumnus of Grinnell College. He served as a Trustee of the College for many years. The Robert N. Noyce ’49 Science Center is named in his honor.
From the gift, $4 million will establish the Robert N. Noyce ’49 and Ann Bowers Endowed Chair in Computer Science for the benefit of faculty in the Computer Science Department. The Robert N. Noyce ’49 and Ann Bowers Endowed Fund for Curricular Development creates a $2 million endowment to support interdisciplinary curricular development, with a preference for projects that promote teaching and learning. The Robert N. Noyce ’49 and Ann Bowers Endowed Scientific Equipment Fund will provide a $2 million endowment to sustain equipment, maintenance, and upgrades that support teaching and research in the sciences. An additional $2 million establishes the Robert N. Noyce ’49 and Ann Bowers Endowed Scholarship to support students who have demonstrated financial need.
“An endowed chair is exciting,” says Peter-Michael Osera, chair of the Department of Computer Science. “Just ten years ago – in 2015 – we had 13 computer science majors. Today, we have 144, with almost half pursuing an additional major across 19 different departments.”
Grinnell’s 2023 post-graduate survey shows that 97% of computer science majors are employed in the field or attending graduate school at their first- or second-choice institutions, including master’s and doctoral programs at Carnegie Mellon, Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Northwestern University, Purdue University and other highly ranked programs.
Osera adds, “Computing is ubiquitous in society. The depth of interdisciplinary work in the Computer Science department, from our students’ interests in other majors to our multi-themed introductory courses, reflects this fact. In addition to the foundational theory and systems-building skills taught to our majors, we want to provide the entire college community computing education in essential areas like Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Algorithms and Ethics. The exponential growth of the program has outpaced faculty capacity. We are grateful to the Robert N. Noyce Foundation and to Ann Bowers for this chair, which will fund a tenth faculty tenure line and enable us to continue to prepare Grinnell graduates to lead in a rapidly evolving and technological world.”
“It is my sincere belief that this generous bequest will inspire others to support Grinnell’s brilliant and dedicated faculty and students as they teach, learn, and discover together. Robert Noyce was the force behind discoveries that shape how we live today, but he was also known as ‘The Mayor of Silicon Valley’ because he recognized the power of collaboration and the potential for technology to have a positive influence on people’s lives. It will be exciting to see how these principles, which he and Ann Bowers held dear, will be reflected by the faculty and students who benefit from this gift for years to come,” says Bernadine Douglas, vice president of development and alumni relations.
###
