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Phil and Penny Knight have committed $1 billion—the largest gift ever given to a comprehensive public university—to the ���Ĺ���, with the intention to establish a college of engineering located at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

The new college would educate engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to a growing campus and accelerate the university’s ability to move discoveries out of the laboratory and into products, therapies, technologies and companies.

The gift is the third commitment the Knights have made at this scale in 10 years, following $500 million in 2016 and $500 million in 2021 that created and expanded the Knight Campus. Those gifts drew further support from the state, industry partners, foundations and other donors. One example is the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, part of a $220 million global initiative, established at the Knight Campus in 2021.

“Phil and Penny Knight have a long history of believing in things before they exist,” ���Ĺ��� President Karl Scholz said. “They did it in 2016, and they are doing it again now, at a scale that is genuinely hard to take in. I am grateful to them, and I am grateful to be here for it."

Since 2016, the Knight Campus has established the ���Ĺ���’s first engineering department, graduated the first engineers in the university’s history and grown to 17 research laboratories engaging more than 500 students and trainees each year. Its graduate students have won National Science Foundation fellowships at roughly 40%, against a national average near 15%. Its master’s internship program holds graduation and placement rates above 90%.

The Knight Campus is also an engine for entrepreneurship. Through incubator laboratories in the Papé Family Innovation Center, partnerships with more than 200 companies and access to capital through Launch Oregon, it has supported more than a dozen student- and faculty-led startups, among them Penderia Technologies, VivoTex and restor3D.

“The creation of a College of Engineering builds on the original vision put forward by UO faculty who inspired Phil and Penny to invest in the idea that we can do better translating the great work we do out into the real world,” said Bob Guldberg, vice president and Robert and Leona DeArmond Executive Director of the Knight Campus. “The Knight Campus stands on the foundation of a remarkable Oregon legacy: the belief that bold innovation can unlock human potential. Today, we carry that same belief forward, applying it to science, technology, and human health.”

Employers across biotechnology, semiconductors, life sciences, advanced materials, manufacturing, sports performance and artificial intelligence consistently name engineering talent as one of their most critical needs. A