$8.16M Gift Honors Longtime Supporter of UMD Science and Arts
The Brin family’s commitment was matched by a $3.25M award from the state for 2 endowed chairs.
Innovative approaches to using climate data to improve weather forecasts and save lives. New ways to engage audiences by expanding the frontiers of live performance. Cross-cutting research to fight the world’s fastest-growing neurological disease.
Those are among the goals behind a new $8.16 million commitment to the University of Maryland honoring the late Eugenia Brin, wife of mathematics Professor Emeritus Michael Brin and mother of Google co-founder Sergey Brin ’93 and Samuel Brin ’09.
The Brin family’s newest gift supports Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless, an ambitious fundraising initiative to raise $2.5 billion to expand access to UMD’s first-rate education, spur transformative research and create stronger communities.
It directs nearly $3.1 million to an endowed chair and lectureship aimed at improving the use of data in meteorology and climate science, an equal amount to support the development of “expansive theater” in nontraditional performance venues, and $2 million to support an endowed chair for Parkinson’s disease research. Collectively, the family’s long record of philanthropic support of the university totals some $65 million.
The funding for the endowed chairs will be matched by a $3.25 million award from the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund (MEIF), a state program created to spur basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields at colleges and universities.
"The Brin family's partnership with the University of Maryland has helped shape our university through investments in exceptional people and bold ideas,” said UMD President Darryll J. Pines. “This latest commitment, honoring Eugenia Brin's legacy, builds on that relationship by investing in outstanding faculty, pioneering research in weather, climate and Parkinson's disease, and bold artistic innovation. We are deeply grateful for the Brin family's continued confidence in Maryland and the lasting opportunities this gift will create for our students, faculty and the communities we serve."
The Moscow-born Eugenia emigrated to Maryland in 1979 with her family, including a young Sergey, her husband, and his mother, Maya Brin, who later became a Russian language instructor at UMD. Eugenia, educated at Moscow State University’s School of Mechanics and Mathematics, soon found a job at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center researching topics related to climate and meteorology.
In 1998, at age 50, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Eugenia went on to become a leading advocate of research into the neurodegenerative disorder, which destroys the brain’s dopamine-producing neurons and impairs motor control. She died in December 2024.
“We’re glad to be in a position to support the University of Maryland with this gift in memory of my wife,” said Michael Brin. “It is shaped by the story of her life, from her career as a NASA climate scientist, to her lifelong love for the arts, to her battle against a terrible, but we believe, ultimately conquerable disease.”
The commitment funds three major areas of research:
Parkinson’s Disease
The $2 million commitment establishes the Eugenia Brin Endowed Chair of Parkinson's Disease at the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC), supporting a new faculty member who will conduct Parkinson's research in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
The position is designed to bring together faculty from both campuses to focus on computational approaches to accelerate research into a disease that rose in prevalence by 274% between 1990 and 2021, according to an influential study. The UM-IHC is aiming for practical breakthroughs for Parkinson’s patients, said Adam Porter, its co-executive director and a professor of computer science.
The funding will be matched by a $1.625 million award from MEIF, part of the Maryland Department of Commerce.
“For this chair, we’re looking for someone who can bring artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, bioinformatics and other large-scale, highly computational approaches to understanding the brain, disease progression and potential therapies,” Porter said.
Data Assimilation and Meteorology
The Eugenia Brin Endowed Chair in Data Assimilation ($2 million) will support a new faculty member in the Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST) whose research in data assimilation—the discipline of feeding real-world observations into predictive models—leads to more accurate weather forecasting and climate research.
The position, like the new chair focused on Parkinson’s research, will also be augmented by $1.625 million in MEIF funding..
“Weather and climate forecasting depend on the quality of data being used by the models,” said Wendell Hill, professor and director of IPST. “This new chair lets us bring in a cutting-edge researcher who can advance the science of translating raw observations into usable predictions at a moment when both the volume of data available and the stakes for getting predictions right are rising very rapidly.”
Additionally, the related Eugenia Brin Endowed Lectureship in Meteorology and Data Assimilation ($1 million), paired with a current-use lectureship ($80,000), will fund an ongoing lecture and symposia series through the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center.
“These two new endowed chairs and endowed lectureship represent a powerful commitment to academic excellence and will help our college attract exceptional faculty members whose teaching, mentorship and research will drive discoveries in environmental science and in the understanding and treatment of Parkinson's disease,” said Amitabh Varshney, dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. “We are deeply grateful to Michael Brin for this heartfelt gift honoring his late wife’s memory and to the state for matching his investment.”
Expansive Theater
The Eugenia Brin Expansive Theatre Endowed Program Support Fund ($2.5 million) and Current-Use Program Support Fund ($580,000) will support efforts in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) to push the boundaries of where theater productions can actually take place, which is likely to lead to unforeseen breakthroughs in creativity.
“It’s going to allow us to explore site-specific performance—perhaps something that takes place in a warehouse or a garden,” said Jill Bradbury, professor and director of TDPS. “We will see new ways of engaging with audiences, like perhaps multisensory engagement that experiments with taste and smell, or non-normative theater breaking the fourth wall.”
The funding will bring visiting artists to campus, upgrade production technology and support the Production Lab inside the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, which the College of Arts and Humanities will rename in Eugenia Brin's honor. It connects to the Arts for All program already active in TDPS.
“This very generous funding from the Brin family acknowledges the importance and quality of the performing arts at the University of Maryland,” said Stephanie Shonekan, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. “It is an exciting opportunity that supports our commitment to boundless creativity and telling stories that prioritize an investment in human connection.”
