The greatest gift
We’ve received our largest-ever gift worth $7.5m from graduate John Shaw (MA 1970) and his wife Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.
A donation of $5m will go to the Research Hub, currently under construction on the Western Infirmary site as part of our £1bn campus development. A further donation of $2.5m will create a new Professorial Chair to be named the Mazumdar-Shaw Chair of Precision Oncology.
Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak is Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences: “Scotland is a world leader in precision medicine and this support for precision oncology comes at a time when we are making significant progress. I am extremely grateful for the Shaws’ recognition of the importance of our work here at the University and for their financial support.”
John’s career with the Paisley-based textile firm Coats included management and financial positions across the world and led to him meeting his future wife Kiran in Bangalore. When they married in 1998, her firm Biocon was a pioneering biotech venture, and when John took early retirement from Coats he helped his wife transform the company from a small company into a biotech giant.
“As a proud alumnus of the University,” he says, “I have the good fortune of making a gift at a time when the University is embarking on a major expansion. The success of our company, Biocon, has allowed us to be philanthropic. Research at Glasgow resonates very closely with Biocon’s principal interests in diabetes and cancer. Our gift therefore seeks to support research and precision oncology. The University of Glasgow has the potential to advance science to new levels and become a globally recognised Research Hub.”
This article was first published September 2019.
We are creating a campus on Gilmorehill that will attract world-class academic expertise, enable groundbreaking discoveries and provide opportunities to the next generation of students. Find out more about our campus development.
