Carl Icahn ’57 Gives $20 Million

The Icahn Family Foundation, whose founder and president is Carl C. Icahn ’57, has made a $20-million gift to construct a laboratory that will be home to Princeton’s new interdisciplinary Institute for Integrative Genomics. The Carl C. Icahn Laboratory will be adjacent to the Lewis Thomas Laboratory. Construction of the new building, which will contain research labs, offices, and seminar rooms, is expected to begin next summer and to be completed by early 2002. In this new facility, investigators will pick up where the Human Genome Project, which is mapping the entire human gene sequence, leaves off – identifying the functions of human genes and then discovering how different genes act together in an integrated fashion, said Shirley M. Tilghman, the Howard A. Prior Professor in the Life Sciences and director of the Institute. One of the best-known figures in American business and finance, Icahn is president and CEO of the investment firm Icahn & Co., Inc., which specializes in such areas as real estate development, oil and gas, rail car leasing and manufacturing, and technology firms. A noted philanthropist, Icahn serves as chairman of the board of Children’s Rights Inc., a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of poor children dependent on government systems. He also founded Icahn House, a home for single mothers and their children. Icahn has established educational institutes and created scholarships at a number of schools, including Princeton.

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This was originally published in the December 1, 1999 issue of PAW.