The Wegman Family Charitable Foundation is giving $17 million in two gifts to the University of Rochester: $10 million is for the University's Institute for Data Science and $7 million goes to support Golisano Children's Hospital.
This past fall, U of R President Joel Seligman announced a $100 million commitment to greatly expand the university's work in data science, which is focused on how the world understands and applies vast quantities of information and data. Plans include constructing a state of the art building to house the Institute for Data Science which will have as many as 20 new faculty members.
UR Medicine is also working on a new $145 million children's hospital, which is slated to open in the summer of 2015. Wegmans CEO Danny Wegman, is hoping the gift from the foundation will inspire others to contribute to help raise the $15 million still needed for the new building.