Billionaire Venture Capitalist Michael Moritz Gives $30 Million For UC San Francisco Basic Science PhDs

Michael Moritz, the chairman of Sequoia Capital and a billionaire venture capitalist, is giving $30 million to fund an endowment for basic science PhD students at the University of California, San Francisco, the university announced Tuesday. UCSF is matching the grant with $25 million in institutional funds, making it the largest endowed program for PhD students in the history of the University of California.
“The basic PhD science programs are under threat because of cutbacks in government funding,” Moritz told FORBES in a call from Europe. “Without people stepping in to help, there is a real risk of programs getting cut back.”

UCSF has also made a commitment to raise an additional $5 million from at least 500 participating donors. Moritz said he hopes UCSF alumni and faculty will participate, and that it will generate a culture of giving.
Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman, want to make sure that UCSF stays at the forefront of basic science PhD programs globally. “Our gift is also intended to ensure that really talented young scientists don’t have financial hurdles stand in their way.”

Large research universities like UCSF typically cover the cost of tuition and living expenses for basic science PhD students. But federal funding from the National Institutes of Health has remained flat since 2007. From 2000 to 2010, state education appropriations to UCSF dropped by 54% on a per-student basis. Meanwhile, tuition and fees for graduate programs at the University of California have skyrocketed, climbing to $15,700 a year for in-state students in 2013 from $9,075 in 2006. (Out-of-state students pay an additional $15,000 in tuition the first year.)

“Graduate students in the life sciences play a vital role in faculty research and innovation and bring curiosity and new ideas to the laboratories where they work,” said UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH.

Moritz’ wife Heyman also has a personal connection to UCSF. One of the couple’s children had worked years ago in a neuroscience lab at the university, and Heyman became interested. For about a year she has been volunteering at a UCSF neuroscience lab. “She’s really taken it up with a vengeance,” said Moritz. “She works five days a week — and on the weekends she reads scientific textbooks.”

Moritz, 59, was born in Wales, worked early on as a journalist in the U.S. and wrote a book about Apple AAPL +4.97% in 1984. At Sequoia Capital, he has been part of a team that invested early in Apple, Cisco, Google GOOG -1.92%, Yahoo YHOO -2.12% and PayPal. For the new Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, FORBES estimated his net worth at $2.2 billion. Moritz and Heyman, who joined the Bill Gates/Warren Buffett Giving Pledge in April 2012, have been generous donors to the University of Oxford, Moritz’s alma mater. In 2008, the couple made a $50 million gift to Oxford. Last year, they pledged $116 million to Oxford for scholarships, to be paid in three installments. The second installment will be in 2014. Moritz and his wife also donate funds to the Julliard School.

“There will be other [gifts] coming,” Moritz said. “We don’t intend to expire with any money in our pocket.”
In 2012, Moritz stepped back from management responsibilities at Sequoia, saying that he had a rare, incurable disease (he did not disclose the specific disease). But he has remained active as an investor, and is on a trip to Europe because of investments he has made for Sequoia there. In June he was knighted by the Queen of England, an honor bestowed upon a select few who have made significant contributions to national life.

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