Read the full story by Reeve Hamilton in the Cornell Chronicle.
A $100 million philanthropic commitment, the largest in Cornell Engineering’s history, from David A. Duffield ’62, MBA ’64, will significantly expand the college’s existing Duffield Hall, creating a new state-of-the-art home for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and critical new lab space for strategic research priorities.
A visionary engineer and entrepreneur, Duffield has founded six business software companies, including PeopleSoft and Workday. His previous gifts to Cornell have supported multiple named spaces and programs on the Ithaca campus. The most prominent of these is Duffield Hall, which was completed in 2004 and houses one of the country’s most sophisticated research and teaching facilities for nanoscale science and engineering.
“Dave Duffield is an extraordinary philanthropist and a truly visionary Cornellian,” said Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff. “His generosity has already immeasurably enhanced the quality of the university’s research, education, and campus life, and he continues to find and pursue new avenues for advancing Cornell’s mission.”
Duffield’s latest gift will expand Duffield Hall to encompass the space currently occupied by Phillips Hall, an adjoining building that has housed the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering since it opened in 1955, having been built with funding from the Ellis L. Phillips Foundation. With the endorsement of the Phillips family, the school’s directorship and the Engineering Quad’s largest auditorium, located in the expanded Duffield Hall, will be named in honor of Ellis L. Phillips Sr., Class of 1895, who was among the school’s earliest and most prominent graduates.
