UD receives $2.5M for biology faculty research from estate of alumnus

The estate of University of Dayton alumnus Robert J. Schuellein, who helped found the biology graduate program at UD, has donated one of the largest gifts to the biology program in history: $2.5 million to support faculty research through an endowed chair.

Schuellein, who died in 2011 at the age of 91, notified UD in a 1998 letter that he was making the gifts, in part, because strong faculty research supports continued academic excellence and helps attract better students, according to UD.

The university said that Schuellein, at the time a Marianist brother, graduated in 1944 with a degree in biology. After earning his doctorate and a master’s at the University of Pittsburgh, he returned to Dayton in the late 1950s to teach and help establish the graduate program in biology. He mentored several of the first students to receive graduate degrees in biology from UD, according to the university.

“Through his influential career at the National Institute of Health, Dr. Schuellein observed the critical importance of support for faculty research, to advance scientific understanding as well as strengthen the mentoring of students who will become our future scientific leaders,” said Paul Benson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, in a news release.

“Dr. Schuellein’s generous gifts help confirm that first-rate research and education in the biological sciences will continue to be a central component of the University of Dayton’s academic reputation.”

Schuellein left UD in 1964 for the National Institute of Health in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Dental Research, overseeing research grant administration and training programs until his retirement in 1983, according to UD. He later married and had previously lost his wife

He also donated more than 2,000 slides he used during his years of teaching to the biology department, according to UD.

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