But biomedical innovation promises to remain central to his legacy with Saturday's announcement that the University of Utah will receive $15 million in Sorenson money to help build an interdisciplinary research facility for the Utah Science, Technology and Research initiative.
"It's a way to give back and perpetuate what my dad did and mother continues to do," said James Lee Sorenson, who serves as a trustee for the Sorenson Legacy Foundation. "The initiative is an embodiment of the things my family has been involved in, finding the best technologies and innovations to create jobs and make an economic impact on Utah."
The proposed 193,000-square-foot building, to be named the James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building, will house a $130 million anchor for an 11-acre quad proposed for the campus golf course.
"James LeVoy Sorenson's interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial approach to finding creative solutions for challenging medical problems endures in the vision for this facility," U. President Michael Young said.
The 2006 Legislature funded USTAR to help foster university-developed technologies and shepherd them into the marketplace.
Utah State University broke ground on its USTAR building earlier this month.
U. officials announced the Sorenson gift at a gala event unveiling a $1.2 billion fundraising campaign dubbed Together We Reach. The campaign, quietly launched in 2005, has raised $557 million from 193,473 donors.
"Our alumni and friends are remarkably generous and the U. consistently is among the top 20 public universities in private support," said Fred Esplin, vice president for institutional advancement.
The gift covers half the U.'s $30 million obligation toward the USTAR facility. Taxpayers are footing the remaining $100 million. The U. has lined up eight innovation areas for USTAR support, including nanoscience, brain research and imaging, medical devices and carbon sequestration. While the goal is to advance translational research, U. officials see USTAR as a way to promote the university's educational mission.
"As we expand, it gives more opportunities for students to work with professors," Young said. "Not only are we generating new knowledge, but we're also cultivating the next generation of great scientists and entrepreneurs."
While the Sorenson name is materializing on an ever-growing number of buildings and programs on Utah campuses, it failed to stick to the U.'s School of Medicine, which accepted a $15 million pledge from Sorenson in the late 1980s. But Sorenson philanthropy has still poured onto campus, reaching $33 million since September 2007. Sorenson himself initiated the USTAR gift before he died of cancer in January.
The new Sorenson building will be purposefully situated to connect the med school and its associated facilities against the foothills with the engineering complex to the west. It will be the first structure on a quadrangle proposed for the golf course, which will see its last round played out next month.
"The Interdisciplinary Quad will literally and figuratively bridge our health professions, engineering, science, business and law sections of campus," said Lorris Betz, the U.'s senior vice president for health sciences. "The connections the Quad will nurture will promote creativity, attract excellent faculty, engage savvy, motivated students and foster commercial partnership opportunities."
Lord Aeck & Sargent Architecture of Atlanta is designing the facility with local support from Prescott Muir Architects. It will contain a 20,000-square-foot nanofabrication facility to support U. chemists and engineers who are working on the next generation of biosensors and drug-delivery systems. The U. intends to break ground in late spring and open the facility by 2012.
bmaffly@sltrib.com
