A new biomedical data science center in Oregon has gotten off to a quick start thanks to a $10 million donation from Columbia Sportswear Chief Executive Tim Boyle and his spouse, Mary.
The University of Oregon and the Oregon Health & Sciences University will jointly run the new center, which will empower researchers at both institutions to attack cancer with big data. The Boyles’ gift was to Tim Boyle’s alma mater, the University of Oregon.
Among other things, the Boyle’s donation shows once again the power of the Portland area’s footwear and apparel industry to build enormous fortunes.
The partnership would combine efforts at the UO’s Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact with those at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. The center will initially involve as many as 20 researchers and their teams.
Phil Knight, co-founder and former CEO of Nike, is the wealthiest person in Oregon and has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to various charitable causes.
The research center will develop new approaches to quickly and efficiently analyze large groupings of data, allowing researchers to “listen in” on cell development for early detection of lethal diseases.
Bill Cresko, an Oregon biology professor and executive director of the data science initiative, said the partner with OHSU is “just the beginning.
The partnership, he said, “provides a model for development of data science programs in other focal areas, such as environmental big data, business analytics, behavioral data science, and data science ethics and communication. It ranges from the natural sciences to architecture to music.”
Tim Boyle, who built the family hat business into one of the leading apparel companies in the world, said he and Mary are delighted by the collaborative spirt of the data science initiative.
“Mary and I are thrilled to help create an environment that allows researchers to tap the power of big data and prepares students for careers in the rapidly changing field of data science,” Boyle said. “We are excited about the new biomedical data science center because the UO and OHSU complete each other in terms of research expertise. We look forward to seeing similar collaborations in other fields.”