The University of California, Davis, has received more than $2.5 million in three recent bequests to the campus. The funds, to be used to provide support for students and for biological sciences programs, were bequeathed by Southern California rancher Hubert Wakeham, UC Davis alumnus John F. Steindler, and Washington, D.C., researcher and administrator Alexander Hollaender and his wife, Henrietta. Wakeham, a native of Santa Ana who maintained a lifelong interest in education, bequeathed more than $1 million to UC Davis to provide student assistance and establish a mentorship program for graduate students. Half of his bequest will support merit-based scholarships for high-achieving undergraduate students, 40 percent will be used for graduate research fellowships, and 10 percent will make possible the development of the mentorship program. The graduate fellowships will support research under the direction of a faculty mentor and are designed to encourage the development of collaborative research between talented students and their faculty sponsors. "As the cost of education continues to escalate, there is a growing need for new sources of financial assistance for students," said Robert E. Chason, acting vice chancellor for student affairs. "This is true for many of the brightest entering freshmen, whose decisions to attend UC Davis may depend upon the level of financial assistance offered at the time of admission. The Wakeham scholarship will be enormously helpful in ensuring UC Davis' ability to continue to compete for the very brightest students." Wakeham died in 1987 in Orange County at the age of 77. An alumnus of Oregon State College, he inherited several ranches from his father, who was a well-known agriculturist and businessman. The ranches are located in Orange and Imperial counties, Escondido and Fish Lake Valley, Nev. n John F. Steindler, an animal husbandry student at UC Davis more than a half-century ago, contributed nearly $1.47 million to the university through a bequest and a trust. The bequest will be used for student fellowships in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the trust will support research in the Division of Biological Sciences. Totaling nearly $700,000, Steindler's bequest will be used to create an endowment fund that will generate income to support undergraduate and graduate fellowships to be known as the John F. Steindler Fellowships in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The fellowships are intended to support and encourage members of underrepresented ethnic groups to pursue careers in research and teaching. John E. Kinsella, dean of the college, emphasized that the college greatly values the opportunity to establish fellowships and to recruit and support qualified graduate students from minority and underrepresented groups. He also noted that the bequest is important for the development of future faculty in the environmental, agricultural, biological and social sciences -- areas for which the college is renowned. "The Steindler funds will help the college realize its commitment to promote critical graduate student and faculty development," Kinsella said. The trust, which totals nearly $770,000, was designated by Steindler to fund scientific research. Awards will be known as the John F. Steindler Research Awards and will support the research of faculty in the Division of Biological Sciences. An intercollege program, the division includes faculty members from the departments of Animal Physiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Botany, Genetics, Microbiology and Zoology. "The awards will help talented young faculty members establish new research programs by providing important momentum to the programs from the outset," said the division's dean, Robert D. Grey. Born in New Rochelle, N.Y., Steindler attended Stanford University from 1934 to 1936, and attended UC Davis from 1938 to 1940. He died in 1989. n While working in Washington, D.C., Alexander Hollaender was instrumental in planning scientific conferences with UC Davis that, in combination with the resulting scholarly publications, added to the prestige of the campus and to the reputations of participating faculty. Gratitude for the collaborative planning of these conferences prompted Hollaender and his wife, Henrietta, to bequeath $100,000 in her will to UC Davis. The bequest will support graduate fellowships and programs in the biological sciences. "We are most grateful for Dr. and Mrs. Hollaender's generous support for UC Davis graduate students," said M.R.C. Greenwood, dean of Graduate Studies. "We plan to use the bequest to create the Alexander and Henrietta Hollaender Institute Fellowship in the biological sciences." Subject areas within the biological sciences to be supported by the gift will be identified on an annual basis. Alexander Hollaender, as director of the Council for Research Planning and Biological Science Inc. in Washington, D.C., assisted UC Davis faculty members in planning a wide range of scientific conferences, focusing on subjects such as genetic engineering and on genetic toxicology. The conferences resulted in texts that provided information for program planners at foundations such as the National Science Foundation, as well as literature for undergraduate and graduate education. At a conference sponsored by the council in 1970, Hollaender learned of the research in biotechnology taking place at UC Davis from faculty member Raymond C. Valentine. This began a key relationship between Hollaender and the university that lasted until his death in 1986. Valentine, a professor emeritus in agronomy and range science, regards Hollaender as instrumental in the advances that have taken place in the application of biotechnology to agriculture, including agriculture in developing areas of the world. "He had tremendous ability to motivate people to work together, and also assisted and served as mentor to many younger scientists in their projects," Valentine said. An immigrant who left Austria to escape Nazism in the 1930s, Hollaender held a doctorate in physics. His first position in this country was in the agriculture department at the University of Wisconsin. In the 1950s, he became a scientific administrator, directing a biology group in Oak Ridge, Tenn., following completion there of work on the Manhattan Project. He later founded the Council for Research Planning and Biological Science Inc., which served as a forum for furthering interest in scientific topics among key members of congress. Hollaender's study during these years of the effects of radiation on DNA material resulted in his election to the National Academy of Sciences. In 1982, President Reagan presented him with the Enrico Fermi Award in physics. Hollaender's wife, Henrietta, accompanied him to conferences at UC Davis and assisted him in all of his activities. She held a degree in art and purchased impressionist works in Paris, which became the basis of the couple's art collection. This collection will soon be displayed in a gallery that is now being constructed to honor the Hollaenders at the University of Wisconsin.