The Fletcher Jones Foundation Fuels LMU STEM Expansion with $1 Million Gift to Engineering Innovation Complex

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Loyola Marymount University has received a $1 million grant from The Fletcher Jones Foundation to support the Engineering Innovation Complex (EIC), a planned capital expansion for LMU Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering. The grant is the first major philanthropic commitment secured under the leadership of LMU President Thomas Poon, Ph.D., who began his tenure on June 1, 2025.

"As a scientist and educator, I am committed to unlocking the transformative potential of the Engineering Innovation Complex — not just for LMU, but for the students and broader society we serve," Poon said. "This visionary investment from The Fletcher Jones Foundation affirms LMU's bold aspirations to drive solutions to society's most pressing challenges through STEM innovation, collaboration, and creativity. I'm grateful for their partnership and their confidence in LMU's ability to lead the way."

The Fletcher Jones Foundation is one of LMU's most enduring philanthropic partners whose gifts date back to 1981, when it first contributed $5,000 to the university's annual fund. Since then, their growing generosity has been critical to a range of capital and academic initiatives, including the construction of the William H. Hannon Library and the Howard B. Fitzpatrick Pavilion Innovation Lab; the renovation of the William M. Rains Library at LMU Loyola Law School; the endowments of the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing and the Fletcher Jones Foundation Endowed Scholarship; and the renovation of Strub Theatre. The foundation's lifetime giving to LMU exceeds $7.7 million.

The foundation's support of the sciences has been particularly impactful. In 2010, The Fletcher Jones Foundation contributed $500,000 toward the construction of Seaver College's Life Sciences Building, which opened in 2015. The facility has been central to Dean Tina Choe's multi-year effort to strengthen the college's research infrastructure, improve faculty and student research productivity, and elevate LMU's academic reputation. It was also a key factor in LMU's elevation in 2017 to the high research category in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Now, the EIC promises to have a similarly transformative impact.

"The continuity of support from a foundation that is committed to higher education and understands the value of STEM education is galvanizing," Choe said. "The EIC will be a catalyst for innovation and discovery and will enable us to fully optimize the student experience. I am grateful to have The Fletcher Jones Foundation as such a forward-thinking partner in this pivotal collaboration."

About the Engineering Innovation Complex (EIC)

The advances of the last half-century have catapulted STEM education into a new era in which finding solutions to today's complex problems requires cross-disciplinary research and collaboration. With best-in-class facilities for research, learning, and discovery, the EIC will expand the university's leadership in STEM, helping to accelerate new technologies and scientific advances. In addition to housing classes in engineering, computer science, physics, and health care systems engineering, the facility will support interdisciplinary research programs that are a hallmark of integrative scholarship.

The EIC will use modern architectural touchstones that are built for the future with a focus on flexibility and sustainability. A module-based layout will enable the reconfiguration of teaching and research spaces, allowing the university to respond to changing needs and create specialized hubs that address key areas for investigation. Collaborative spaces for learning and research, advanced maker spaces, teaching laboratories, and community spaces will enable Seaver College students and faculty to work with industry partners dedicated to innovation in STEM both within and beyond the university, particularly among LMU's neighboring institutions along Southern California's technology corridor.

About The Fletcher Jones Foundation

The Fletcher Jones Foundation was endowed in 1972 from the estate of Fletcher R. Jones, co-founder of the Computer Science Corporation. The foundation makes grants to private colleges and universities in California to support the strategic needs of the institution.

About Loyola Marymount University

Loyola Marymount University is one of the nation's top-ranked Catholic universities, recognized by U.S. News & World Report among the top 50 private and top five Jesuit institutions in the country, and among California's top six private schools. Founded in 1911 and rooted in the Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount traditions, LMU enrolls 7,100 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate and law students across seven colleges and schools. The university offers 56 undergraduate majors, 57 minors, 43 master's degree programs, three doctorate programs, and 12 credential/authorization programs. With top-ranked programs in law, film and television, entrepreneurship, business, and the arts, LMU is embedded in the creative, cultural, and economic life of Los Angeles. The university generates $1.4 billion in annual economic impact. A proud member of the West Coast Conference, LMU fields 14 NCAA Division I teams and competes with purpose, pride, and integrity.

LMU news and events are found at: www.lmu.edu/news.

SOURCE Loyola Marymount University