Sternbergs donate $5 million to establish endowed chair, professorship

President Joseph Aoun and trustee Sy Sternberg.
Courtesy Photo

A significant donation to Northeastern University will accelerate its momentum behind interdisciplinary research and scholarship.

Sy Sternberg ’68 and his wife, Laurie Sternberg, generously donated $5 million to establish two endowed interdisciplinary faculty positions at the university: $3 million will be used to establish the Sternberg Family Distinguished University Endowed Chair and $2 million will be dedicated to creating the Sy and Laurie Sternberg Interdisciplinary Endowed Professorship.

“I am proud to call Sy and Laurie partners in our quest to raise Northeastern to the next level of excellence,” said university President Joseph E. Aoun. “Their extreme generosity opens new doors for our research and teaching enterprises to flourish and will be a powerful catalyst in the life of this institution. Ultimately, the impact of their investment will reach far beyond campus borders as it supports excellent scholars whose work in emerging fields has a substantial impact on the world. We are immensely grateful for their generous and visionary gifts to our university.”

“Laurie and I are thrilled to support the continuation of Northeastern’s longstanding tradition of research and teaching excellence,” said Sy Sternberg. “Endowed faculty positions are immensely important to the future of this campus in so many ways. Our decision to support interdisciplinary faculty in particular stemmed from a desire to help professors pursue the kind of innovative research that leads to a better society for all of us. Beyond that, we want Northeastern to always be a stimulating place for undergraduate and graduate students to learn. We felt one way to perpetuate that tradition was to support the talented professors who will bring learning to life for future generations of students. We're happy to do our part.”

The Sternberg Family Distinguished University Endowed Chair will be awarded through a university-wide initiative to recognize a select group of senior faculty. University chairs are awarded to faculty whose work and scholarly achievements bring significant recognition to the institution. The holder of the Sternberg Family University Endowed Chair will be a scholar whose research and teaching activities are either at the intersection of or cross traditional academic boundaries and whose work promises to broaden the scope of learning and discovery.

The Sy and Laurie Sternberg Interdisciplinary Endowed Professorship will be awarded to an outstanding faculty member at the associate professor level whose work demonstrates exceptional promise in adding knowledge in one or more fields of study.

The Sternberg family’s generous contribution underscores the university’s Interdisciplinary Faculty Initiative. This initiative brings together excellent scholars from different disciplines to blend their expertise in order to create new knowledge. As part of the initiative, Northeastern seeks to add 50 new scholars to its faculty. These scholars will aspire to create new areas of scholarship and new disciplines by combining their knowledge and mastery of different fields with others.

Sternberg, who graduated with a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern, is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of New York Life Insurance Co., and a Northeastern trustee.