A major donor to Queen’s University has announced that he is making another $30 million investment, this time to support “groundbreaking research.”
The university announced that through his $30 million investment, Bruce Mitchell, Sc’68, DSc’20 will help Queen’s University bolster research its capacity to advance groundbreaking discoveries that will deepen their knowledge of people, the planet, and universe.
“The Queen’s community is grateful for Bruce’s generosity and his commitment to research,” says Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane. “This generous gift provides us with the resources to help achieve our bold research goals in part, through the support of top researchers. With these additional funds, we are realizing our aspirations to become a world leader, bringing scholars and innovators together to make improvements across our many fields of study.”
As a result of the major gift, nine existing faculty members will receive funds to further build their research programs and teams and nine more new faculty members will be hired to support research intensity in strategic research areas.
The investment will also support the recruitment of 54 postdoctoral fellows and will allow the university to increase its graduate student body to “enhance the university’s competitiveness in attracting a diverse global pool of graduate scholars, through financial support for an estimated 79 graduate students.”
“The best way to invest in research is to invest in people and create the optimal conditions for them to thrive,” says Vice-Principal (Research) Nancy Ross, Artsci’90, MA’92. “This gift allows us to focus on attracting and retaining the best faculty and graduate students. We hope to recruit rising stars and nurture them, setting up research environments where researchers are supported and able to progress.”
Mitchell hopes that the funding will increase Queen’s University’s research intensity and graduate student enrolment and is optimistic that this will lead to discoveries that will benefit the world.
Bruce Mitchell is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Permian Industries, which is a family-run Canadian investment holding and management company. According to their website, Permian’s investment portfolio is concentrated in the food processing and distribution, agriculture, packaging, and technology industries. The company generates $2.5 billion in annual revenues and employ over 5,000 people in North America.
Mitchell was also the lead donor in the revitalization of the Physical Education Centre (PEC), which was named Mitchell Hall in his honour. The investment supported the creation of the Ingenuity Labs Research Institute within Mitchell Hall as well as the installation of five engineering professorships across three departments.
This investment adds to a growing number of major funding announcements for the university, including a $102 million investment to the SNOLAB from the federal government in August.
SNOLAB allows a research consortium made up of Queen’s University, Carleton University, Laurentian University, University of Alberta, and the Université de Montréal to “unravel the mysteries of the universe” as one of only two laboratories in the world with low radiation backgrounds to support cutting edge measurements.
The Canadian Cancer Trials Group Operations and Statistics Centre at Queen’s University also received close to $20 million in August from the federal government.
