Dr. Mattoo, Simons Foundation help make a record total.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook has become the recipient of the largest donation ever made to an institute of higher study’s program for south Asian or Indian studies.
A $1.25 million donation from Dr. Nirmal K. Mattoo – a nephrologist and also Chairman of SUNY Stony Brook’s Center for India Studies Executive Committee – coupled with another $1.25 million endowment from the local Indian-American community was then matched in total by a donation from the Simons Foundation, bringing the total financial gift to $5 million, an astronomical sum for an Indian Studies program.
“These generous gifts from Dr. Mattoo and the Indian-American community are building a solid foundation for [the] growth of India Studies at Stony Brook,” said Dr. Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., President of SUNY Stony Brook. “They will help [our school] attract outstanding scholars and talented students who recognize the significant role that India [plays] in a wide range of disciplines and its contemporary role as a major player in an increasingly interdependent global economy.”
Dr. Mattoo’s donation will be used to create “The Nirmal and Augustina Mattoo Chair in Classical Indic Humanities” at SUNY Stony Brook, which will cover a wide array of topics including art, linguistics, literature, philosophy, and religion, among others. The India Studies Center at the university will also be renamed in Dr. Mattoo’s honor.
“The Center is the perfect example of a successful partnership between a public university and the Indian American community,” he said. “Looking ahead, the endowment comprising these gifts will put the Center on a solid financial footing and enable us to continue to offer our rich programs in perpetuity. The study of India, one of the great classical civilizations of the world, is a wonderful complement to one’s education and is a positive influence on the world. And we are delighted to dedicate this endowment as the Indian American community’s birthday gift to India on the occasion of her 66th Independence Day, August 15.”
The India Studies program at SUNY Stony Brook is relatively young, having only begun 1995 and comprising of only two courses. But in less than 20 years, the program has grown into one of the most renowned in the country, and its recent $5 million endowment will undoubtedly help it gain even more recognition. The staff and faculty at the university hope that the money will help establish the Center’s legitimacy and increase SUNY Stony Brook’s reputation as a major academic center in the US.
Said Dennis Assanis, Provost and senior Vice-President of SUNY Stony Brook: “Through the generous contributions of Dr. Mattoo and other donors, The Center for India Studies will continue to be a treasury of human achievement—the intellectual heritage and history of a whole subcontinent—at Stony Brook University.”