Harvard Gets Biggest Gift Ever for Public Health School

Harvard University announced Monday that its School of Public Health has received a $350 million gift from a prominent Hong Kong group, the largest-ever single donation in the university’s 378-year history.

The university announced the donation from the Morningside Foundation, which was established by the late T.H Chan, who earned his masters and doctorate at Harvard. In honor of the gift, the school is changing its name to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The Morningside Foundation supports higher education through scholarships and professorships in both Asia and North America. Harvard said the money will support faculty and students working to reverse four different global threats: old and new pandemics from Ebola to obesity, harmful physical and social environments due to water pollution or gun violence, poverty and humanitarian crises, and failing health systems worldwide.

“This extraordinary gift from the Chan family will enable Harvard’s School of Public Health to tackle intractable health problems and to translate rigorous research into action and policy worldwide,” Harvard University president Drew Faust said in a statement. “The Chan family’s generosity sends a signal to the world: this is the public health moment.”