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A new $5 million gift will allow Wake Forest University to expand its environmental and sustainability work.
From the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, the gift will support research, education and outreach. It will also create new opportunities for faculty and students to develop new methods, technology and results and take them from academic spaces into the public arena.
Wake Forest’s Center for the Environment, Energy and Sustainability will also be renamed the Andrew Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability. Wake Forest is seeking additional support for the center, with a goal of creating a $10 million endowment.
A leading environmental philanthropist, Andrew Sabin is the CEO of New York-based Sabin Metal Corporation. His foundation, focused on protecting the environment and advancing cancer research, awards nearly 200 grants each year.
Two of Sabin’s children and one of his grandchildren have attended Wake Forest.
“It is a privilege to support Wake Forest’s newest initiative. The world needs to many more smart young people with the hearts, minds and skills to tackle the issues facing Earth’s life-supporting systems,” said Andrew Sabin. “Wake’s style of research in teaching – in classrooms, labs and out in the world’s wildest places – is exactly the diversified approach that can fulfill that mission.”
Through CEES, Wake Forest has generated significant research on environmental and sustainability topics. It has also become a leader in understanding mining impacts in developing countries through its Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation, which has garnered global attention, including a feature in a national NBC News report in 2022.
“We’re focused on the future of the planet and this gift will transform our work,” said Miles Silman, founding director of CEES and professor of conservation biology. “By really applying the power of a university … we can address these pressing environmental and sustainability problems, both locally and in the most remote, difficult places on Earth.”
The Sabin Center will take an interdisciplinary approach to critical issues such as climate change, renewable energy, biodiversity loss, wildlife conservation, resource depletion, environmental law and drought and water scarcity. To date, CEES has brought together more than 110 faculty from different academic departments from across the university.
It will also offer seed grants to faculty to support research.
Silman, a renowned ecologist, will direct the research initiatives of the Sabin Center and co-lead it with Stan Meiburg, a former deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency who will serve as the center’s executive director.
“The Sabin Center will serve as that essential connecting hub, a collaborative space to bring all these interests and talent together for research and engagement,” said Meiburg, who worked for the EPA for nearly four decades. “This is a wonderful opportunity for faculty and students from across the entire scope of the university, the business school, the divinity school, the law school and the medical school.”