Phil Knight and wife, Penny, make largest known donation to a public university to fund a new engineering school

Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have donated $1bn to the University of Oregon in what the institution described as the “largest gift ever made to a comprehensive public university”.

The donation is intended to be used to establish a new engineering school in Eugene. In a news release seen by the Guardian, the university said the new school would “educate engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to a growing campus, and accelerate the university’s ability to move discoveries out of the laboratory and into products, therapies, technologies and companies”.