UC Davis is boosting graduate student support through a new initiative that encourages personal donations from faculty and staff — and matches these gifts up to a maximum of $25,000.

The Soderquist Matching Fund Initiative for Graduate Student Support will help the university to offer graduate-student awards that are competitive enough to attract the best and the brightest scholars, while making it possible for current faculty, retired faculty and staff donors to extend their contributions to UC Davis and establish their own legacies.

The matching funds come from a $500,000 gift from the estate of UC Davis alumnus Charlie Soderquist, an entrepreneur and active volunteer on behalf of the university.

“This initiative is part of a broader effort to secure support for all UC Davis students at a time when they need it most,” Chancellor Linda Katehi said in announcing the initiative.

Graduate Studies Dean Jeffery Gibeling, who collaborated with former Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef and other colleagues to launch the initiative, said graduate student support is an investment in research into real-world problems, and in our future leaders.

“Dr. Soderquist’s legacy gift provides the financial foundation that will allow us to attract and retain more graduate students, keeping our campus at the research forefront,” said Gibeling, who became one of the first faculty members to make a donation that qualifies for matching funds.

“His generosity will have a long-lasting effect on our graduate students and our university, allowing us to retain our standing as a preeminent research institution,” Gibeling added.

The Soderquist Matching Fund Initiative gives preference to disciplines that correspond with Soderquist’s interests: agricultural and environmental chemistry, civil and environmental engineering (environmental and water resources), ecology, creative writing, hydrologic sciences, pharmacology and toxicology, and population biology.

The Soderquist Matching Fund Initiative requires a minimum $12,500 donation and will be matched up to $25,000. Each fund will be given the name of the donor or donors and will create an endowment that will last in perpetuity.

Soderquist earned his master’s in 1973 and doctorate in 1978, both in agricultural and environmental chemistry. He went on to found and lead several high-tech companies in the greater Sacramento area, and also served as chair of the UC Davis Foundation Board, president of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association and alumni representative to the UC Board of Regents. He died in 2004.

The university’s first endowed fund established under the Soderquist Matching Fund Initiative is the Erika and Walter Jennings Graduate Student Fellowship in Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry. Walter Jennings, professor emeritus of food science and technology, said he hopes the endowment will help in recruiting exceptional graduate students with an interest in analytical methods.

In addition, Gibeling and his wife, Marsha, established the Jeffery and Marsha Gibeling Graduate Student Support Fund to enable graduate programs to offer recruitment incentives to top applicants.

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 32,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $600 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.