Hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin is giving $125 million to the University of Chicago, the second-largest donation in the university’s history.
The gift to Chicago, where he has been a trustee since 2014, will provide financial aid to students in its influential economics department and expand faculty resources and research, the school said Wednesday in a statement. He gave $150 million three years ago to his alma mater, Harvard University.
The University of Chicago counts 29 current or former faculty and alumni who have won the Nobel prize in economics, including Richard H. Thaler last month. The department will be renamed for Griffin, 49, founder and chief executive officer of Chicago-based Citadel, which has $27 billion in assets.
‘Winning’ Innovation
“I have an economics degree from Harvard,” Griffin said in an interview. “If you think about the amount of critical thinking that has come into the field of economics, two universities have dominated the landscape in my life, Chicago and Harvard. Innovation has been won by Chicago.”
The donation is the latest in a flurry of mega-gifts to universities, aided in part by the record-high stock market. The University of Chicago has received more than $350 million this year in large gifts and pledges, including $75 million for its business school and the Griffin gift. The University of Notre Dame received