UCSD Alumni Pledge $1.2M to University

Husband-and-wife UC San Diego alumni Richard Sandstrom and Sandra Timmons pledged $1.2 million to their alma mater, the school announced today.

Sandstrom, co-founder of high-tech giant Cymer Inc. and a 1972 applied mathematics and engineering science graduate, and Timmons, a former television writer/producer who graduated in 1981, will support graduate students in the Jacobs School of Engineering and undergraduates through the Chancellor's Associates Scholars program.

The donation came via the Timmstrom Family Fund.

"We are deeply grateful to Sandra Timmons and Richard Sandstrom for their dedicated support and generosity to UC San Diego," said Chancellor Pradeep Khosla. "Their gift will have a profound impact on both undergraduate and graduate students for generations to come."

Sandstrom helped start Cymer, which makes lithography light sources used by computer chip manufacturers around the globe.

"Sandy and I believe UC San Diego is an amazing school -- it is a place to get a great education but one that has gotten much more expensive since we were there," he said. "Having access to an education from UC San Diego is having access to the American dream."

The couple designated $700,000 to establish the Sandstrom Graduate Fellowship in Engineering, and the remaining $500,000 will be used to establish the Timmstrom Scholars endowed fund to support undergraduate scholarships in the Chancellor's Associates Scholars Program.

Khosla set up the program last fall to provide eligible UCSD students who have graduated from Gompers Preparatory Academy, Lincoln High School and The Preuss School with $10,000 per year for four years.

The program is soon to be extended to transfer students from San Diego City College and Southwestern College, as well as high school graduates who went through the Reality Changers program, which benefits inner-city youth.