In 2010, Daniel E. Smith ’71, Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth Riley, established the Smith Funds for Research and Innovation in Science and Engineering at Lehigh to expand the institution’s research capabilities and position the university to compete on a new level. The philosophy behind Smith’s gift was to reward innovative thinking and create incentives for collaboration. In addition to supporting students and post-doctoral researchers, the funds serve as catalytic investments that have ignited successful new research programs.
The Smith family gift has helped advance Lehigh’s research enterprise in fundamental ways, which include stimulating and sustaining increased research activity, and positioning faculty within and beyond the Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (CPN) as international leaders in their respective fields. The endowment is still fueling innovation at Lehigh, allowing students and faculty to translate ideas into robust and sustainable research, significantly enhancing the university’s research productivity, and securing the institution’s place among premier residential research universities.
Smith also established the Daniel E. ’39 and Patricia M. Smith Endowed Chair of the Center of Optical Technologies at Lehigh, in honor of his parents. He provided for the creation of the Smith Family Laboratory for Optical Technologies, three-story addition to Sinclair Laboratory housing an optoelectronics cleanroom and an epitaxial growth facility – key resources for CPN.
For more about the Smith family’s wide-ranging and generous contributions to Lehigh, please see Dan’s profile on Lehigh Engineering’s listing of distinguished alumni.