Private gift naming opportunities approved for Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center and UH Hilo College of Pharmacy

BOR also approves space designation and donor recognition naming for The W.M. Keck Cosmochemistry Laboratory at UH Manoa

University of Hawaiʻi

HONOLULU — At its monthly meeting today, the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents (BOR) approved naming opportunities for private gifts to the UH Foundation to support the Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center (MKAEC) at the UH Hilo University Park of Science and Technology and the College of Pharmacy at UH Hilo.

The approvals will enable the UH Foundation and UH Hilo to work together to create donor recognition programs that encourage major private gifts in support of these two projects, and enable the university and the Foundation to immediately begin soliciting leadership level gifts to support the education, outreach and research missions of the programs.

At the MKAEC, donor recognition naming opportunities at levels ranging from $20,000 to $5 million will be available for the planetarium and exhibition hall as well as shows, galleries and theatres within these facilities, and other interior areas within the center. Opportunities will also be available for the various gardens located throughout the center at levels ranging from $20,000 to $125,000.

For the College of Pharmacy, donor recognition naming opportunities at minimum gift levels ranging from $75,000 for offices to $16 million for the building itself will be available.

In addition, the BOR also approved the space designation of two existing rooms in the basement of the Pacific Ocean Science & Technology (POST) building on the UH Mānoa campus and the provision of a donor naming opportunity in recognition of the $1.5 million grant received from the W.M. Keck Foundation to establish the W.M. Keck Cosmochemistry Laboratory at UH Mānoa.

The lab will be amongst the most advanced of its kind in the world, and will build on the success of the cosmochemistry program and open new doors for interdisciplinary research among the university‘s internationally renowned scientists who make up the core team of investigators and experts in ion microprobe analysis and cosmochemistry.

In addition to the Keck grant for the acquisition of an ion microprobe, the university has made a one-time commitment of $1 million, and NASA‘s Sample Return Laboratory Instruments and Data Analysis Program is providing an additional $1.4 million grant to support the laboratory.