We are very pleased to introduce the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences – made possible by the generous $20 million gift from Orange County business leader and philanthropist Donald Bren, chairman of The Irvine Company.
Mr. Bren's gift equals the largest single gift ever to UC Irvine and has created the most endowed faculty positions at one time on any University of California campus.
In recognition of this transformational gift, the school, renowned worldwide for leading the innovation of new information and computing technologies and producing an educated work force to fuel the economic engine, will be renamed the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at UC Irvine.
This historic gift accelerates the school's plans for achieving its overarching goal of becoming a top ten computer science program within five years.
In conjunction with the June 9, 2004, naming announcement, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences also will break ground on its new home, Bren Hall, expected to be completed in late 2006.
Competitively positioned among other top-ranked schools, this gift allows the school of information and computer sciences to continue in its upward trajectory of recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest students, faculty and researchers.
The school of information and computer sciences has long been a program that combines vision and determination with wisdom. Those attributes, in concert with Mr. Bren’s support, will continue to allow its students, alumni and faculty to impact the world.
Elevated to school status in December 2002, the nationally acclaimed school is the first independent computer science school within the UC system and one of the fastest-growing programs of its kind in the nation.
Please explore these special pages for details of the gift and an up-close look at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences.