Philanthropist Samuel Yin Provides $12.8 Million Gift for New Scripps California Laboratories

Philanthropist and businessman Samuel Yin of Taiwan has given $12.8 million to The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) to help fund construction of a new building complex on the La Jolla campus. The gift also secures additional funding from a previous challenge grant, bringing the total in private donations for the project to more than $25 million.

“I would like to express my deep appreciation to Dr. Yin for this transformative gift,” said TSRI’s CEO Peter Schultz. “Together with a generous matching grant from an anonymous donor, the support provides critical anchor funding for the construction of cutting-edge new laboratories.”

“We are extremely grateful for Dr. Yin’s gift,” said TSRI President Steve Kay, “and pleased that the donation calls on us to honor one of our most esteemed faculty members, Chi-Huey Wong, who is Professor of Chemistry at TSRI and President of Academia Sinica, the highest academic institution in Taiwan. At Dr. Yin’s request, it is our pleasure to designate one of the future new buildings the ‘Chi-Huey Wong Chemical Biology Laboratory.’”

“I am most grateful for this unexpected honor,” said Wong, whose research tackles major problems in biology and medicine—especially those associated with cancer and infectious diseases—through a focus on synthesis of glycoproteins, vaccines and other biologically active molecules. “Dr. Yin is a visionary committed to making a better world, and I am doubly appreciative of the recognition because it is at the behest of this great man.”

Yin is Chairman of the Ruentex Group and Chief Development Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Engineer of Ruentex Construction & Development. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University and a Professor at Peking University, where he advises PhD students. 

In the West, Yin is perhaps best known as the founder of the Tang Prizes. The Tang Prizes, biennial awards first given in 2014, are selected by panels of judges convened by Academia Sinica for research excellence in Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law.

Yin is also a long-time supporter of scholarships for the study of Chinese literature and history, programs in higher education, and a number of foundations he launched to serve people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

His latest gift to TSRI makes possible a new state-of-the-art building complex that will help consolidate research labs on the La Jolla campus, encourage collaboration among the institute’s scientists and strengthen ongoing programs at the intersection of biology and chemistry.

“It is my great honor to contribute to the building of new state-of-the-art laboratories, which will further enable major advances in biomedical research at TSRI,” said Yin.

For more information on Yin, see the Tang Prize website. For more information on Wong, see his TSRI faculty web page. For more information on the building project, see TSRI’s Philanthropy website.

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