Boston University has announced a $115 million gift from alumnus and trustee Rajen Kilachand ('74) in support of research at the intersection of life sciences and engineering.

The largest gift in the history of BU includes $15 million for construction of the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering and $100 million to establish the Rajen Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering, an endowed fund that will support interdisciplinary research integrating the life sciences and engineering.

In 2011, Kilachand pledged $25 million to establish the Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College, and in 2012 committed $10 million for a renovation of Kilachand Hall, a student residence formerly known as Shelton Hall. Since 1982, when Kilachand became head of his family's development company, the Dodsal Group, it has grown into a global player in mining, construction, manufacturing, and trading.

In addition to his gifts to BU, Kilachand has provided more than $35 million in support of health, education, and cultural causes in the United Arab Emirates, Africa, and India. He is the largest contributor to the first medical research institute in the UAE, the Al Jalila Foundation, and a regular contributor to the Sheikh Rashid Centre for the Disabled.

"This magnificent new gift from Rajen Kilachand is the capstone of our efforts to generate philanthropic support for the university," said BU president Robert A. Brown. "A center like the Kilachand Center and the resources from the fund will have enormous impact, because they fund the very best people, who have the very best ideas and create the very best outcomes. That is what has built the greatness of a lot of the private research universities in the United States. It's a very strong differentiator. This is the largest gift in our history, and the important thing is that it's the largest gift to scientific research in our history, by far."