Gift from Ann S. Bowers ’59 creates new college of computing and information science
A transformative gift from Ann S. Bowers ’59 – a Silicon Valley champion and longtime philanthropist – will establish the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, supporting Cornell’s preeminence in these fields.
Her nine-figure commitment will provide the enabling support for the construction of a new building for the Faculty of Computing and Information Science (CIS). The building will accommodate sorely needed growth in CIS, where half of all Cornell undergraduates take at least one class and enrollment is increasing at a pace unmatched anywhere at the university. It will also ultimately provide significant endowment support for faculty and students in CIS.
Bowers led human resources at Intel Corporation in the 1970s and was one of Apple’s first vice presidents in the 1980s. She spent her career developing and fostering an environment where technologists could thrive. It is thus especially meaningful that her gift supports CIS at Cornell, which, when created 21 years ago, was one of the nation’s first programs to combine computer science, with its emphasis on technology, and information science, with its focus on the ways technology impacts humanity.
