Yale Engineering Receives $3.5 Million Goizueta Foundation Grant

Yale’s Faculty of Engineering has received a $3.5 million grant to endow a professorship and a scholarship fund.

The incumbent of the newly endowed chair will be known as The Goizueta Foundation Senior Faculty Chair in Chemical Engineering, and the new scholarship fund will provide need-based financial assistance to Hispanic/Latino students whose families live in this country.

This is the second time that The Goizueta Foundation has established a chair in chemical engineering at Yale. The first was created in 1997 in memory of the Foundation’s originator, Roberto C. Goizueta, a Cuban refugee who earned a Yale degree in engineering and who for 16 years sat at the helm of The Coca-Cola Company. Goizueta was noted for his devotion to Yale and its engineering program. He was committed to helping deserving students succeed who could not otherwise afford a Yale education.

“We are profoundly grateful to The Goizueta Foundation for once again contributing significantly to the resurgence of engineering at Yale,” said Paul A. Fleury, dean of engineering at Yale. “This new engineering professorship is doubly appreciated as it will provide vital support and recognition to our faculty and will enhance our ability to attract additional world-class scholars to our programs. It is a fitting initiation for the Sesquicentennial of Yale Engineering to be celebrated in 2002.”

The grant comes at an important time in the University’s history, according to Yale President Richard C. Levin. “As we conclude our yearlong Tercentennial celebration and enter our fourth century, we are deeply grateful to The Goizueta Foundation,” Levin said. “Strengthening engineering is an important University priority, as is the continued provision of need-based aid to talented and diverse students.”

The chair and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company from 1981 until his death in 1997, Roberto Goizueta received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Yale in 1953. He was elected a Gordon Grand Fellow at Yale in 1984, was awarded the University’s inaugural Sheffield Fellowship in 1996, and received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 1997 in honor of his outstanding leadership in the business world. Also known for his longtime dedication to civic service, he established the Goizueta Foundation in 1992 to provide financial assistance to educational and charitable institutions.

The Goizueta Foundation is a private, general purpose, grant-making organization whose primary focus is to help organizations that empower individuals and families to improve the quality of their lives through educational opportunities.