Give to Beckman
Space to spark new ideas
The Beckman Café was built to offer healthy meals and space for researchers to connect and share. Its culture and coffee have nourished minds, encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration, and fueled innovative research.
The Beckman Institute is renovating the café. The enhancements will offer more accessible meal options, welcome even more researchers and residents, and foster Beckman’s unique community. When it reopens, it will be called Ted's Café.
A fresh look for the future
The ambitious plan laid out for the new Ted's Café will come at an estimated cost of $4 million. Much of the cost will be covered by institutional funds. The project will also need substantial contributions from private donors.
If you value what the Beckman Institute has accomplished, what it has meant to you personally, and to the students, mentors, and colleagues who have shared in the Beckman experience, we invite you to be a partner in this transformation.
Beckman Support Fund
Ongoing growth and evolution in scientific research requires commitment, vision, and resources. This fund supports the Beckman Institute, including for undergraduate and graduate student research, as well as ongoing upgrades to scientific equipment and facilities.
Meet Beckman Institute Undergraduate Fellow Sola Adeyiga:
"The Beckman Institute Undergraduate Fellowship didn’t just support my senior thesis—it transformed how I approach scientific questions.
"Funding my work in neuroimaging algorthms allowed me to bridge gaps between technology and equity while reinforcing my commitment to research that serves underrepresented communities. This experience has been foundational as I prepare to pursue an M.D.-Ph.D. and advocate for more inclusive mental healthcare."
Your support of students like Sola will help them pursue important scientific questions and shape their futures.
Beckman Institute Scholarship Fund
The Beckman Institute Scholarship Fund helps train students who will become the next generation of scientists, engineers, teachers, and business leaders.
Nadine Barrie Smith Memorial Fund
The Nadine Barrie Smith Memorial Fund supports a graduate fellowship in medical imaging. It memorializes Nadine Barrie Smith (B.S., '85, computer science; M.S., '89, electrical engineering; Ph.D., '96, biophysics) thanks to generous support from Jean Smith, Arnette Bosch, and Professor Andrew Webb.
Dr. Smith was passionate about promoting women in science, so the fellowship supports female graduate students whose research might include ultrasound, optical, and magnetic resonance imaging.
Erik Haferkamp Memorial Fund
This fund supports an award given to undergraduate research in neuroscience, in memory of Erik Haferkamp. Mr. Haferkamp was pursuing a double-major in molecular and cellular biology and psychology when he passed away in 2010. He was a passionate member of psychology Professor Justin Rhodes' lab at the Beckman Institute, where he was a student researcher and lab technician.The fund is made possible by the generous support of Erik's family, including Bonnie Haferkamp, Beth Haferkamp, David Haferkamp, and numerous extended family, friends, and colleagues.
Thomas & Margaret Huang Fund for Graduate Research
This fund supports students in the broad area of human-computer intelligent interaction at the Beckman Institute.
Alumni James J. Kuch (M.S., '94, electrical engineering) and Chang Wen Chen (Ph.D., ’92, electrical engineering) established it in honor of Professor Thomas Huang, the Maybelle Leland Swanlund Endowed Chair Emeritus in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his wife, Margaret.
Professor Huang advised more than 100 students during his career, which has spanned five decades and three major research universities (MIT, Purdue, and the University of Illinois). He is remembered as a pioneer in computer vision, pattern recognition, and human-computer interaction.
Klaus Schulten Memorial Fund
Klaus Schulten was a physics professor at the University of Illinois and a long-time faculty member at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology who died in 2016. He was a pioneer in the use of computational methods to study the chemical and biological processes driving living cells. His work lives on in the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group.
Gifts to this fund support research in computational and theoretical biophysics in memory of Professor Schulten.
Other ways to give
If you'd like to make a gift using another method, visit the University of Illinois Foundation's website.
