The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Celebrates New Home

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LIVERMORE, Calif., Sept. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation has opened the doors of its new offices at 2300 First Street in the center of downtown Livermore. An open house celebration for community friends and neighbors was held Friday. Dawn Argula, Chief of Staff for Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, Brigadier General (Ret.) Thomas Gioconda, Deputy Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. and Livermore Vice Mayor, John P. Marchand, joined the festivities. Special guests included Hertz Fellow, Shannon Yee, Ph.D. student at the University of California at Berkeley, as well as Lt. Thomas Dean, USA, new Hertz Fellow beginning his Ph.D. program at Stanford University.

"We are very pleased with our new home," said Dr. Jay Davis, Hertz Foundation President. "For twenty years, we were housed in office space at a Livermore industrial park. We are now able to make this move into smaller but more modern offices in the heart of our city. This is a more attractive and encouraging environment for visitors and for staff who work very hard at important tasks to further the mission of supporting our Nation's strengths."

For nearly half a century, the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation has supported creative young men and women, giving them exceptional resources that allow maximum freedom to innovate in their doctoral research. The Hertz Foundation mission is to build America's capacity for innovation by nurturing these remarkable applied scientists and engineers. The Foundation seeks out those who show the most promise to change the world for the better, supporting their research endeavors from an early stage.

The Hertz Foundation has provided the nation's most generous Ph.D. fellowships to more than 1100 gifted young men and women. Fellows are awarded $250,000 for up to five years of doctoral study. Additionally, the Foundation provides cross-generational, in-school mentoring, as well as unique symposia, workshops and retreats that take place away from campus environments. In the past ten years, with Foundation support, Hertz Fellows have built a community in which all ages gather together and inspire one another. This year, Fellows lead a collaboration that won an award from the Gates Foundation to improve public health in Nairobi while sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The new offices have higher visibility in a community now developing as a satellite technology hub on the periphery of Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay electronics and biotech communities. Hertz Foundation Board and management saw a need for space that would be more inviting for current and potential donors. The Hertz Foundation is located next to the Bankhead Theater and a planned boutique hotel. The new offices are across the street from a future 2000-seat theater and in the midst of a revitalized downtown with excellent clusters of restaurants and shops.

"Our aim is to eventually fund and support the nation's top one percent of graduate students in applied science and engineering," stated Dr. Davis. "With generous donations coming our way, we believe we will hit that mark. We welcome the participation of new donors, who seek exceptional leverage for the Nation in their philanthropy investment." Additional information about the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation can be found by visiting www.hertzfoundation.org.

SOURCE Fannie and John Hertz Foundation