The University of Southern California has announced a $50 million gift from venture capitalist Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary, to endow and name a neuroimaging and informatics institute.

The USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute will support and work to accelerate the translation of basic research into new therapies, preventions, and cures for brain injury and disease, including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injury. Located at the Keck School of Medicine of USC on the Health Sciences Campus, the institute will partner with faculty in biology, genetics, biostatistics, engineering, computer science, mathematics, pharmacology, and numerous other disciplines.

Mark Stevens earned a BA in economics and a BS in electrical engineering in 1981 and, in 1984, an M.S. in computer engineering, all from USC. He also holds an MBA from Harvard University. The managing partner of healthcare consultancy S-Cubed and a special limited partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, Stevens has served as a member of the USC board of trustees since 2001. For the past eighteen years, he also has served on the board of councilors for USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He and his wife are longtime supporters of the university and have provided naming gifts for the USC Stevens Center for Innovation and the Stevens Academic Center for student-athletes.

"With this landmark gift, Mark and Mary Stevens enhance their already spectacular philanthropic legacy," said USC president C.L. Max Nikias. "They significantly widen the scope of their support for American higher education and bring their philanthropy to particularly pressing and important areas of inquiry."