Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, has announced a $1 million pledge from alumna and longtime benefactor Judith Rosenberg Hoffberger, class of '54, to support its science programs.

The Aspen, Colorado, resident made the gift in honor of Bennington president Elizabeth Coleman, matching a $1 million presidential leadership grant awarded to Coleman last fall by a private foundation in New York. Hoffberger's gift will provide funding for the college's ongoing collaboration on neuroscience research with the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California.

A Bennington trustee from 1984 to 1990, Hoffberger has supported the college's music program with a scholarship fund that has assisted almost forty visual and performing arts students. She also has funded a music library and sound studio on campus; the latter provides students with a space to study, perform, and record their own work.

Deborah Wadsworth, chairman of the college's board of trustees, called Hoffberger's latest donation remarkable and praised her dedication to Bennington. "[Her gift] not only honors our visionary president," Wadsworth said, "but also enables Bennington to make a real contribution at the leading edge of science."