A Legacy of Innovation

USC receives large naming gifts to honor innovator and physicist Alfred E. Mann.

Last November, a substantial gift from the late innovator and physicist Alfred E. Mann jumpstarted an initiative to reimagine biomedical engineering and pharmaceutical sciences at USC and beyond. To acknowledge these innovative investments — which will fund student scholarships, distinguished faculty hires, new research and more — two USC entities were named: the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, which received $50 million; and the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biolomedical Engineering, which received $35 million.

The namings come after a long and fruitful relationship between the university and Mann, who died in 2016. Mann donated more than $174 million to USC toward addressing health care issues with innovative solutions, including the establishment of the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering in 1998, which has been instrumental in creating groundbreaking medical inventions such as the artificial retina. Mann was also a member of the university’s Board of Trustees and served on the Board of Overseers of Keck School of Medicine of USC.