American Philanthropist Makes Big Donation In Australia

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jul 28th 2009 at 6:01PM

Billionaire Chuck Feeney is in the news again with another big donation. He has pledged more than $100 million Australian to the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Queensland, Australia. The money will be used to help fund three major new research institutes and hopefully attract more top scientists to Brisbane. Feeney's Atlantic Philanthropies has donated more than $270 million to Queensland scientific and medical research over the past decade.

Why would and Irish-American philanthropist be giving away big money in Australia? Feeney is quoted in Australia's Courier Mail as saying that when he visited Queensland he found a "lot of people worthy of support and not getting it and I was pleased to help." He is hoping that the work he funds in Queensland can improve health around the globe. Projects said to be on tap include researching breast cancer susceptibility genes and the genetic risk of schizophrenia, as well as funding clinical trials of a new malaria vaccine. Ian Frazer, the inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine, is behind the Translational Research Institute at Princess Alexandra Hospital, one of the institutes that Feeney is funding and the amount of scientists in the area has been on the rise. Frazer is currently at work on a skin cancer vaccine.

Tags: australia, billionaire, chuck feeney, ChuckFeeney, donations, ian frazer, IanFrazer, queensland

Filed under: Big Givers

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Ben Jul 29th 2009 8:57AM

Deidre,

Always love your posts. However, on this one, as an ex-pat Australian, I thought your choice of words might have been a little careless. You wrote "Why would an Irish-American philanthropist be giving away big money in Australia?" as if to suggest Australia is somewhat less worthy. I understand what you are trying to say, but it definitely hit a nerve when I read this the first time.

Keep up the great work!!