| In one of the largest gifts from individual donors ever made to UCSF, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock have contributed $25 million to endow a distinguished professorship for the UCSF chancellor and to fund construction at UCSF Mission Bay. Arthur Rock is founder of the San Francisco-based venture capital firm Arthur Rock & Company and a legend in American investment banking. Credited with coining the term "venture capital," Rock established his reputation as a Silicon Valley pioneer by helping to found such companies as Intel Corporation, Apple Computer, Teledyne Inc., and Scientific Data Systems. Rock is also president of the BASIC Fund, which provides scholarships that enable inner city children to attend private schools. His wife, Toni Rembe, was on the management committee and is managing partner in the tax department of Pillsbury Winthrop LLP. She has served as president of the Commonwealth Club and of the American Conservatory Theatre and is presently chief executive officer of the Van Loben Sels/Rembe Rock Foundation. A portion of the couple's gift will establish the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professorship, to be held by UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, MD. The first of its kind in the University of California system, this unique chancellorial professorship will be passed on to future UCSF chancellors. The remainder of the Rocks' gift will fund continued construction of UCSF's Mission Bay campus. In gratitude for their generosity, the University will name the 171,000-square-foot Genetics, Development and Behavioral Sciences Building at Mission Bay for the donors. Designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Hall is the second research facility to open at UCSF Mission Bay. Occupants and visitors enter the building through a five-story atrium on their way to laboratories or one of four multifunction seminar rooms. The structure's shared facilities encourage interaction among its 258 investigators in the related fields of human genetics, developmental biology and developmental neuroscience. The findings of these scientists are likely to open up new approaches to the treatment of psychological disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, addictions and other intractable illnesses. "Arthur Rock has always had an eye for promising enterprises," says Bishop. "The Rocks' extraordinary commitment speaks volumes about the caliber of work underway at UCSF and its potential to transform medical science. We are profoundly grateful for their far-sighted investment in this institution."
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