Brown Family Foundation pledges nearly $1 million

The UA engineering and business colleges have received a gift commitment from the Thomas R. Brown Foundation that will fund faculty positions and support scholarships.

In addition, the Brown Foundation hopes to establish an endowed chair in each college to further support collaboration between business and engineering.

The foundation will contribute nearly $1 million to the colleges over a period of three years.

Cancer Center gets grant to fight gastrointestinal cancer

The Arizona Cancer Center recently received a five-year, $11.8 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The grant will enable Eugene Gerner, the principal investigator on the project, and his team to "translate" promising discoveries made in laboratory research into effective preventative or therapeutic anti-cancer compounds for human gastrointestinal cancer patients.

Institute receives $1M from U.S. Department of Energy

The Institute for Biomedical Science and Biotechnology, which received a boost of $1 million from the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research

The money will allow the UA to complete the planning phase and begin construction on a new building.

Student Union Memorial Center creating time capsule

The Student Union Memorial Center is accepting suggestions for items to be placed in a time capsule that will be sealed into the new building during the grand opening in February. Items should capture the sentiment of our era.

Ideas can be E-mailed to Chrissy Lieberman, coordinator of campus activities and union galleries, at ceagan@email.arizona.edu, or call 621-8046.

UA's Steward Observatory wins $35 million contract

The Steward Observatory Mirror Lab recently entered into a $35-million contract with Lockheed Martin to help build a "large optical test collimator."

The 6.5-meter mirror will be the first built by the UA for non-astronomical use.

Kamen Aerospace Electro-Optics Development Center in Tucson will help design the collimator's structural, electrical and software systems.

It will enable the testing of large space-based optical systems for commercial and defense uses.