CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 4 (UPI) -- Billionaire hedge-fund manager John A. Paulson is donating $400 million to Harvard University, the largest gift in the Ivy League school's history and the biggest ever to a U.S. university.
The endowment will be used for the university's School of Engineering and Applied Science, which has been renamed after Paulson, 59, a 1980 graduate of Harvard Business School. The money will also help build a new Harvard campus in the Boston neighborhood of Allston.
"The education here opened up a lot of doors for me," Paulson said, adding the donation is an effort to "ensure that Harvard, Allston and Boston and the East Coast will be a center for technological innovation."
Paulson is the founder of Paulson & Co., a hedge fund that manages $19.5 billion. The company first came into notoriety in 2007 when it made $15 million collecting on bets the housing market would collapse.
"John Paulson's extraordinary gift will enable the growth and ensure the strength of engineering and applied sciences at Harvard for the benefit of generations to come," said Drew Faust, president of Harvard and Lincoln Professor of History.
Last year, hedge-fund manager Kenneth Griffin donated $150 million to the school, the largest financial gift to the school at the time.
