The University of Calgary has announced a $100 million gift from businessman and alumnus Geoffrey Cumming, which will be matched by $100 million from the province of Alberta, to support medical research at the university.

The gift in support of the Faculty of Medicine's priority areas, brain and mental health and infections, inflammation, and chronic diseases, will enable students, researchers, and postdoctoral scholars to participate in cutting-edge research and train with the best minds in their fields, while also supporting initiatives with the potential to advance health and health research. In recognition of the gift, the university's medical school will be renamed the Cumming School of Medicine.

"When you go into the labs and spend time with medical researchers, you find incredibly talented individuals," said Cumming. "Bright and driven, they are capable of making important advances into diseases and disorders where we currently have only limited understanding. This gift is about attracting more of the world’s best researchers to Alberta and to inspire and challenge them to make significant medical advances of benefit to Alberta and to the whole world."