Hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin continued his support of U.S. higher education with a $125 million gift to University of Chicago's Department of Economics.
The donation from the Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Foundation is the second-largest donation in the university's history.
Mr. Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel LLC, previously donated nearly $25 million to UC's economics department, which will be renamed in recognition of Mr. Griffin's gifts.
The financial infusion to UC's Department of Economics will support scholarships for undergraduate students of economics; provide stipends for graduate students; and fund research for graduates and faculty. It will also establish the Kenneth C. Griffin Applied Economics Research Incubator, which will seek new ways to strengthen the understanding and application of economics.
"The University of Chicago has transformed our understanding of economics. Over the past century, the faculty and students have challenged the status quo to produce pioneering research and path-breaking ideas," Mr. Griffin said in a joint news release from Citadel and UC. Mr. Griffin, who donated $150 million to his alma mater, Harvard University, in 2014, made clear his intention to continue philanthropic support for higher education.
He told Bloomberg: "I expect over the remainder of my life to give frankly well over a billion or several billion dollars to higher education. I think this is so important to our society that every single young man and young woman in our country has access to our best schools."
Citadel manages $27 billion in hedge funds.
