U of Chicago Gets $100 Million to Study Global Conflicts

With the gift, which is equal to the second biggest the university has received in its history, University of Chicago officials say they will be able to establish an academic research institute and an annual forum devoted exclusively to the study and resolution of global conflicts. The donation will be used to create a first-of-its-kind Institute on Global Conflict Resolution.

Pearson and Timothy R. Pearson, both 61, who are chairman and chief executive officer, respectively, of the Pearson and the Pearson Family Members Foundation based in Wilmington, Delaware, the university said in a statement Wednesday.

The University of Chicago (UC) is set to undertake one of the largest research projects imaginable in the world today: studying and resolving global conflict. The family also considered as many as a dozen other universities in the USA and overseas, but ultimately decided that Chicago was the best suited to establish the institute.

“The direct use of analysis and understanding to improve lives is a longstanding attribute of the University of Chicago”, Zimmer said. “It also signifies our belief that non-state conflicts, from drug cartels to insurgent organizations such as ISIS, increasingly constitute the foreign policy challenge of our time”.

In 2008, the university received its largest gift ever, $300 million from alumnus David Booth to benefit the graduate business school.

The Pearson Institute is slated to open in 2016.

“The investigation of worldwide clashes is a field ready for momentous exploration approaches, and the Pearson Institute will look to advise more viable arrangement answers for determining rough clashes to have an enduring effect the world over”, U. of C. President Robert Zimmer said in an announcement.

All four named professorships will hold appointments at The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. The university will also create a Pearson Fellows program for Masters of Public Policy students and a Pearson Scholars program for Ph.D. students. Additional conferences and related events will highlight the institute’s research findings.