Innovation & Leadership
A “venture fund” to keep the Paul G. Allen School at the forefront!
Endowed Chairs, Endowed Professorships, Endowed Fellowships, and Endowed Scholarships are awarded to specific individuals – highly meritorious faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students – to provide recognition and support.
The Endowment for Innovation and Leadership fulfills a different but equally critical role. This “pooled endowment” (contributions from many individuals) provides funding that the Director of the Paul G. Allen School uses to invest in initiatives that have the promise of significantly increasing the Allen School’s innovativeness and competitiveness in any of its three critical missions of education, research, and outreach. In recent years, discretionary funding of this type has been used:
- to launch new Capstone Design Courses in the undergraduate program
- to provide first-year fellowships for top graduate student applicants, increasing the likelihood that they choose to attend UW
- to provide startup funds for new faculty hires, allowing them to launch their research programs immediately when they arrive
- to support faculty teams writing large-scale research proposals that will take CSE in new directions
The Endowment for Innovation and Leadership is named for Ed Lazowska, honoring his long-term leadership of the Paul G. Allen School and beyond, and his contributions to creating the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering.
Ed joined the UW faculty in 1977. He is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a Fellow of the ACM, the IEEE, and the AAAS. He was selected to deliver the 1996 University of Washington Annual Faculty Lecture, and to receive the 1998 University of Washington Outstanding Public Service Award, the 2007 Paul G. Allen School Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the 2015 University of Washington David B. Thorud Leadership Award. He chaired the Paul G. Allen School (at that time the Department of Computer Science & Engineering) from 1993-2001; under his leadership, the Allen School received the inaugural University of Washington Brotman Award for Instructional Excellence, four Allen School faculty members were recognized with the University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award, one with the University of Washington Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, and eight with Sloan Research Fellowships. Along with Tom Alberg (Managing Director of Madrona Venture Group) and Jeremy Jaech (CSE alumnus and co-founder of Aldus and Visio) Ed led the campaign for the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, which was dedicated in 2003. Fifteen years later, along with Brad Smith (President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft) he led the campaign for the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering, which was dedicated in 2019. He was appointed as the inaugural holder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in 2000.
When you contribute to the Endowment for Innovation and Leadership, you honor and fuel the passion of Ed Lazowska and the Allen School’s many other remarkable people.
You can give online to this fund.
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Professor Emeritus Hellmut Golde and his wife Marcy, and Professor Emeritus Jerre Noe and his wife Margarete, are among those who have contributed to the Edward D. Lazowska Endowment for Innovation and Leadership in CSE. Said Noe, “It is a constant source of pleasure to me to see how the Department has grown and developed … It means a great deal to me to be remembered as having been associated with the beginning of such an outstanding group.”
Interested in learning more?
Contact Ed Lazowska, Professor, and Bill & Melinda Gates Chair emeritus, in the Paul G. Allen School, lazowska (at) cs.washington.edu, or Marzette Mondin, Director of Advancement in the Paul G. Allen School, marz (at) uw.edu
Lifetime endowment gifts of $25,000 and above are permanently recognized on the UW CSE endowment wall in the Allen Center atrium.