$20 MM Gift to Penn Engineering's NanoTech Department

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>Gift of the Week
A Product of Charity
By SALLY BEATTY
August 3, 2007; Page W2</p>

<p>Who Gave It: Martha and Krishna P. Singh, founder and chief executive of Holtec International, Marlton, N.J.</p>

<p>How Much: $20 million</p>

<p>Who Got It: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia</p>

<p>By request: The funds will help build a multidisciplinary center for nanotechnology.</p>

<p>How It Happened: Krishna P. Singh grew up in India in a three-room house with dirt and concrete floors. His father, a law student, died when Mr. Singh was 5. To survive, his family ate food grown by sharecroppers on their land. He was home-schooled by his mother until fourth grade, when he received the first in a series of scholarships that allowed him to complete high school and college in India. He earned a masters and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Penn, funded by fellowships.</p>

<p>Afterward, Dr. Singh worked for a small tech firm. He stayed 15 years instead of striking out sooner on his own because, he says, "when you come out of college with a Ph.D ... you can solve complex problems but you have no business sense." He later founded Holtec, which makes equipment used in power plants. He says his gift reflects his conviction that U.S. competitiveness depends on its universities. It also is recompense for the help he received: "I am entirely a product of the charity of others.”</p>

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<p>Woooo money!! Many thanks to Dr. Singh.</p>

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<p>More on this in this earlier thread:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377190%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377190&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>why would you just give 20 million dollars to some school? There are millions of starving kids in Africa.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
why would you just give 20 million dollars to some school? There are millions of starving kids in Africa.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>To advance research and improve the quality of life for those millions of starving kids in Africa.</p>

<p>Who should the donation be given to? The Nigerian government? More than half of the money will be consumed by the bureaucratic choked-mess!</p>

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<p>I am aware of that- same goes for ghana(where i'm from). You dont just hand the 20 million over to the governement. I'm sure theres several other ways to ensure that the money is going to the right people. Or build f**king schools there- private schools. Oprah did it. But you don't just hand over 20 million to a school. I love penn(i'm applying there this spring) but this p isses me off!</p>

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<p>Build private schools and make the same food starved people pay?</p>

<p>I agree with you in principle on this matter though, the way I always saw it education and scientific research are the only things that can change the lives of millions of people world wide. That is (hopefully) what this donation will do.</p>

<p>I hope nanotechnology and biotechnology (unlike computers) will be used to improve the lives of millions before used to churn of profits!</p>

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<p>or instead of giving it to the nigerian government how about someone use 1,000 of it to go to nigeria and divide it themselves for the kids</p>

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<p>^ Noble idea. There's a famous saying in my native language - "It's better to teach a man to fish rather than giving them a fish" which is probably where racnna was going with his private school idea.</p>

<p>Then again a private school and free tuition aren't mutually exclusive, sorry for misunderstanding you racnna I agree with you 100%!</p>

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<p>Micro-finance. </p>

<p>You want ridiculous, try Harvard. With $30 billion in the bank they could build whatever they want.</p>

<p>Compared to Harvard, Penn is downright poor.</p>

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<p>^ Well said. What the hell does Harvard want to do with that money anyway?</p>

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<p>Not undergraduate education, that's for sure ;)</p>