Donors have given UC Davis $55,771,000 in private support since the beginning of the current fiscal year on July 1, 2003. Among last month's gifts was a $1 million contribution to the UC Davis Cancer Center from high-tech industry pioneer Susan Mathews in memory of her husband, Robert.

Other recent private donations include:

• a $455,000 pledge from the Veterinary Centers of America for capital improvements to the School of Veterinary Medicine's instructional facility;
• $175,000 from the Hagan Family Trust toward an endowed chair in water management and policy that is named for the late Robert M. Hagan, UC Davis professor emeritus of water science;
• $200,000 from Roy and Rebecca Brophy to augment the Roy Brophy Professorship in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Roy Brophy is former chair of the M.I.N.D. Institute Board of Directors and a former UC Regent;
• nearly $128,000 in research funding and laboratory equipment for electrical and computer engineering;
• $125,000 for improvements to the Wildlife Health Center in the School of Veterinary Medicine from the Wildlife Health Center Foundation;
• $80,000 to anthropology from the trust of G. William Skinner, professor of anthropology, and Susan L. Mann, professor of history, for research on pre-modern and modernizing agrarian societies;
• $59,250 from Chevron Texaco for fellowships and research in transportation and the hydrogen economy at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies;
• a research award of $50,000 to electrical and computer engineering from Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Inc.; and
• $50,000 from the estate of Arthur and Corinne Shields to endow the John W. Shields Memorial Award in theatre and dance.