Boston University has announced a gift of $2.5 million from alumna Maria Stata ('62) to endow a professorship in classical Greek studies.

Following an international search by a committee of professors from relevant departments across the university, the inaugural Maria Stata Professorship in Classical Greek Studies was awarded to Department of Philosophy chair David Roochnik. According to Virginia Sapiro, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the professorship may be held by a faculty member from any number of disciplines — including art, history, literature, philosophy, and science — as long as he or she focuses on an area of importance to the understanding of classical Greek antiquity.

Stata, whose husband, Ray Stata, is co-founder and chair of semiconductor and signal processing company Analog Devices, asked that her gift help ensure that undergraduates who may not be majoring in the classics have a chance to study the influence of ancient Greece on Western civilization. "Mrs. Stata wanted to support Boston University's ability to educate students about that important society and its contributions to culture, art, architecture, philosophy, science, and literature," said Sapiro. "Indeed, these influences remain profound today, although most of our students may not know it if they don't study it."