Nike cofounder gives $1bn to University of Oregon in historic donation

Phil Knight and wife, Penny, make largest known donation to a public university to fund a new engineering school

Nike cofounder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have donated $1bn to the University of Oregon in what the university described as the “largest gift ever made to a comprehensive public university”.

The donation is intended to be used to establish a new engineering school in Eugene. In a news release, seen by the Guardian, the university said the new school “will 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”.