Terry S. Semel and Jane Bovington Semel will donate $25 million to endow UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, director Dr. Peter Whybrow announced June 17. The gift is one of the nation’s largest to be dedicated exclusively to the better understanding of the brain.
The gift from the chairman and chief executive officer of Yahoo! Inc. and his wife will lay the cornerstone of a unique academic-community partnership facilitating a better public understanding of the brain and of complex human behavior through science, education and compassion, according to Whybrow. The Semel gift will support research and community education programs to address the understanding and treatment of such diverse illnesses as autism, mood disorders, addiction and Alzheimer’s disease. In recognition of their generosity, the institute will be renamed the Jane and Terry Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Jane Semel will chair the institute’s Board of Community Counselors.
“We want to help lift the stigma that weighs heavily on millions of Americans suffering from diseases of the brain by inspiring greater public understanding of the impact of biology, genetics and culture on behavior and personal health,� Terry Semel said.
“We want our gift to instill an even greater commitment on the part of UCLA and other universities to strive to match scientific excellence with humanistic care, compassion, and the development and dissemination of self-care tools,� Jane Semel said. “We hope to build a stronger bridge between academic research and community outreach to promote emotional well?being among individuals, families and communities.�
“The pandemic of stress-related diseases in America, and especially the prevalence of anxiety and depression in young people, suggests that as a society we are losing touch with essential behavioral principles that ensure health and happiness,� said Whybrow, who also is the Judson Braun Professor and the executive chair of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
“Coming at a time when we are poised to physically rebuild the institute, the generosity of the Semels offers an unprecedented opportunity to create and lead a new humanitarian vision
for the field of neuroscience,� Whybrow said. “The Semel Institute is uniquely positioned to integrate the clinical neurosciences of psychiatry, neurology and neurosurgery into a cohesive whole, while at the same time reshaping the design of health care programs and the public perception of mental illness and of chronic brain disease.�
“This exceptional gift from Terry and Jane Semel is important to the continued vitality of this preeminent institute,� said Dr. Gerald Levey, vice chancellor for medical sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine. “Coming within three years of the unprecedented gift by Mr. David Geffen endowing the School of Medicine, the institute endowment is an additional crucial component that will secure the future of UCLA as a world leader in medicine and science.�
Terry Semel joined Yahoo! Inc. as chairman and chief executive officer in May 2001 and is credited with leading the company’s successful transition and significantly growing the company’s revenues, global consumer base and prominence as the leading Internet brand. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Semel spent 24 years at Warner Bros., most notable for his role as chairman and co-chief executive officer. Semel is currently on the board of directors of Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. and the Guggenheim Museum.
Jane Semel is founder of ijane inc., a nonprofit production company that works to address public health issues through entertainment. She launched FaceTheIssue.com, an integrated broadcast and online public service campaign that aimed to raise awareness of common emotional and physical health issues faced by young adults. The campaign was narrated by Hollywood’s top female entertainers, including Halle Berry, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Julianne Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Jane Semel has been on the board of visitors at UCLA since 1995.
Since its founding five decades ago, the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA has established a reputation as one of the world’s most comprehensive and innovative neuroscience centers, one dedicated not only to the pursuit of better clinical care for psychiatric and neurological disorders, but also to a comprehensive program of research and education in basic neuroscience, behavior and human culture. With a full-time faculty of 370 physicians and research scientists, 700 clinical faculty, and 1,300 staff members, in the 2003–04 fiscal year the institute had operating revenues of more than $200 million, including more than $125 million in competitive research grants from public and private agencies.
Working with 12 academic departments within the David Geffen School of Medicine and across the UCLA campus, the institute’s centers of fundamental research span neurobehavioral genetics, developmental and cognitive neuroscience, neuropharmacology and pharmacogenomics, brain imaging, immunology and the mind-body interaction, health services, health policy, and sociocultural studies, in addition to clinical research. The institute also is home to one of the nation’s oldest and most distinguished federally funded Mental Retardation Research Centers. In recent years the institute’s faculty have made significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of such diverse illnesses as autism, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders, attention-deficit disorder, schizophrenia, manic depression,
Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, and obesity and the other eating disorders.
Educational programs in psychiatry and its sub-disciplines, the clinical neurosciences and neurology, interdisciplinary neuroscience research, clinical pharmacology, neurobehavioral genetics, and medical psychology complement this breadth of fundamental research. The institute also supports vital programs in clinical care at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Hospital, which is an integral part of the institute and of the UCLA Health Care System, and also at numerous community facilities throughout Los Angeles County. U.S. News & World Report has judged the acclaimed UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital as the best psychiatric hospital in the Western United States for 12 consecutive years.
More information about the institute’s research and clinical programs is available online at www.npi.ucla.edu.