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WILMINGTON The University of North Carolina Wilmington received a multi-million dollar gift today.

Quality Chemical Laboratories pledged a $5 million gift, to be donated over the next five years. The donation is the largest corporate philanthropic gift in the Universitys history. Quality Chemical Laboratories founder, Dr. Yousry Sayed is a longtime UNCW faculty member in the chemistry department. His wife, Linda Sayed, is a graduate of the University.

UNCW Chancellor Jose Sartarelli said the announcement was some time in the making.

We have been working on this for about a year, Sartarelli said. I have become involved more recently. Aswani Volety, our Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, was very involved. This was a confluence of good things and good timing.

The Sayeds donation to UNCW will support new programs aimed at advancing study in pharmaceutical and chemistry. According to the administration hopes the gift will help the University further develop recent advances in chemistry, biochemistry, biology and marine biology. Over the coming years, the gift will provide funding for establishing distinguished professorships and research, and may also help support scholarships, faculty research and travel grants.

Sartarelli said the programs will help the school meet the current needs of the state and the growing health care market.

The programs will be under the department of chemistry and biochemistry. Were starting with a Masters program, and we hope to develop a Ph.D. program as well. The goal, of course, is to help connect our students with the growing field of health sciences, with clinical research organizations and testing.

Quality Chemical Laboratories employs many UNCW graduates from the chemisty and biochemistry programs, according to Sartarelli. He hopes the Sayeds gift will help prepare future graduates for similar jobs across the state.

In a press release, Dr. Sayed said he and his wife were happy to be able to give back to their University.

It is an honor to be able to make this small contribution to this great university we love and appreciate, and to invest in the future of this important area of study and the students we serve, said Sayed. My wife and I have been a part of the Seahawk family and have grown together with UNCW for decades, and to know we are contributing to the universitys mission and outcomes in some small way is very rewarding for us.

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UNCW receives largest ever donation, gift will support pharmaceutical and chemistry programs - Port City Daily