ON CAMPUS AT UCI:Beall family gives $6.6 million

Corona del Mar resident and former Rockwell chief executive Don Beall has given UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business a $6.6 million endowment to foster innovation.

“We want to help UC Irvine reach its full potential as a catalyst for economic growth in Orange County and the region,” he said.

The gift, from the Beall Family Foundation, will expand current activities and launch new programs of the Merage School’s Don Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which will collect and organize global research on innovation to help businesses, the academic world and community groups understand opportunities and problems of innovation.

The research ultimately will be made public on the center’s website.

The donation also will support the Beall Center’s year-old colloquia series, which brings scholars and business leaders to campus to discuss innovation.

For more information, go to www.merage.uci.edu .

CHANCELLOR VISITS CHINA AS ‘AMBASSADOR OF PEACE’

UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake traveled to Beijing to be the American keynote speaker at the 2007 Silk Road to the Future Olympic banner presentation July 27.

Designated as an Ambassador of Peace by the Legends of China Foundation, Drake embarked on a weeklong journey to strengthen and promote the university’s ties with the region.

Silk Road to the Future has been held annually since 2001 in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Each year, students from the United States and China create personal works of silk art representing world peace that are sewn together and added to a banner depicting China’s Silk Road.

When complete, the banner will be carried by American and Chinese university students at the games’ opening ceremony.

During his stay in China, Drake met with some of the country’s most influential leaders in education and government, including Zhang Xinsheng, China’s vice minister of education, and Clark T. Randt Jr., U.S. ambassador to China.

He also met with delegates from leading teaching institutions, including Tianjin Medical University, Peking University Health Science Center and Xi’an Jiaotong University.

CAMPUS CALENDAR

For information about UC Irvine events, visit https://today.uci.edu/calendar .