McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, has announced a gift of C$32 million ($25.1 million) from Marnix Heersink, an Alabama physician and entrepreneur.

The gift will establish the Marnix E. Heersink School of Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship; endow two professorial chairs, one in biomedical innovation and the other in biomedical entrepreneurship; create a development fund for innovation and commercialization; and provide C$5 million ($3.9 million) for the new Global Nexus building, a contribution that the university will match. In addition, the gift includes funding for the Mary Heersink Centre for Global Health, named after Marnix Heersink’s wife, a founding member of the international advisory board for McMaster’s Global Health Graduate Program.

In September 2021, Marnix and Mary Heersink committed $95 million to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to establish a similar institute, which is intended to complement and work with the programs at McMaster.

“This donation can be considered an investment that will spawn a hub of biomedical innovation in both Hamilton and Birmingham, with hives of start-up companies manufacturing life-saving medical products,” said John Kelton, a university professor of medicine at McMaster and longtime friend of the Heersinks. “This will completely reimagine both cities’ post-industrial economies, just like computers and the internet kickstarted Silicon Valley and transformed California’s economic fortunes.”

(Photo Credit: Getty Images/gorodenkoff)