Philanthropists bring stellar scholars and researchers to the USC Shoah Foundation, USC Marshall, and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering
USC university awards endowed chairs and professorships to leading faculty, the best of the best. An endowed position is the highest academic recognition that a university can bestow on a professor. It’s an honor that rewards leading research and teaching and enables USC to attract and retain some of the nation’s top academics.
Endowed chairs, professorships and directorships also serve as enduring tributes to donors who make them possible. Several USC donors recently made generous donations to support key faculty members and their scholarly work. Among them:
Ceci Chan embraces tikkun olam
The Girl and the Picture (2018), courtesy of IMDB
Ceci Chan is inspired by the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, or “healing the world.” A member of the USC Shoah Foundation Board of Councilors’ Executive Committee, Chan supports the inaugural director of USC Shoah Foundation’s Countering Antisemitism Lab through a $1.5 million gift.
For decades, she has countered antisemitism and all forms of racism, hatred, and violence. Her philanthropy bolstered USC Shoah Foundation’s endowment and its Nanjing Testimonies, which record survivors/witnesses of the massacre in 1937.
As an active global investor, Chan focuses on green technology, blockchain, and content creation. She co-produced 2020: Chaos and Hope, which streams on Peacock. Chan is developing the documentary The Silk Roads, based on Peter Frankopan’s best seller. Supporting the USC Shoah Foundation, she contributed to three documentary films: The Girl and the Picture (2018), Liberation Heroes (2019), and Two Sides of Survival (2021).
Business students can thank the Fluor family
Peter J. and Ann K. Fluor and their daughter, Lacey Fluor Goossen, are bringing stellar business education to students by endowing the Peter J. Fluor Family Chair in Teaching Excellence.
Peter Fluor, a longtime member of the USC Marshall School of Business Board of Leaders, earned his bachelor’s and his MBA from USC Marshall. Fluor is the former chairman and CEO of Texas Crude Energy Inc. His $1 million gift supporting the chair builds on prior generosity and family tradition. His father, Robert Fluor, was a USC trustee, and his brother and son both earned their bachelor’s at USC Marshall.
Sawchuk family advances electrical and computer engineering
Narumon Bowonkitwanchai / Getty Images
Professor Emeritus Alexander A. (Sandy) Sawchuk and his wife, Mariette T. Sawchuk, opened opportunities for future generations of faculty through a generous $3 million gift to establish the Alexander A. Sawchuk Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
The endowed chair will support the work of a distinguished faculty member in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, which Sandy Sawchuk led from 2005 to 2012. He has received accolades for teaching and mentoring, as well as research that advanced the field of optics, and previously served as director of the USC Signal and Image Processing Institute and deputy director of the USC Integrated Media Systems Center.
