Graduate pledges cash to USA link

Professor Schinazi's pledge has set up an international exchange programme

A University of Bath graduate has pledged more than £394,000 to forge new links between Bath and a leading American university.

Professor Raymond Schinazi, an academic at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, has launched the Schinazi International Exchange Programme.

The international exchange programme will allow two researchers to study at Emory for up to six months each year.

Two academics from Emory will also have the opportunity to study in Bath.

The scheme will run for five years and the fund is the largest single gift from an individual the University of Bath has ever received.

Professor Schinazi is the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics and Chemistry and Director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology at Emory University.

He is also a senior research career scientist at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

He has three degrees from the University of Bath, graduating in 1972 with a BSc in Chemistry, completing his PhD in Chemistry in 1976 and receiving an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2007.

My academic life started at Bath and that set me on a long road to success Professor Raymond Schinazi

Professor Schinazi is currently co-director of the Virology/Drug Discovery Core for the Emory University Centre for AIDS Research.

He has been pivotal in the discovery and development of successful anti-HIV and anti-hepatitis drugs - more than 90% of people living with HIV take one of the drugs he invented.

Professor Schinazi said: "It is gratifying to be able to establish this exchange program between Emory and The University of Bath. My academic life started at Bath and that set me on a long road to success.

"This new program affords courageous scientists opportunities to advance themselves in a way that might not otherwise be readily available to them and to expand their horizons."

Professor Glynis Breakwell, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath, said: "I would like to thank Professor Schinazi for this wonderfully generous gift.

"I am confident that this relationship will stimulate many fruitful avenues of research over the coming years and I look forward to welcoming the visiting academics from Emory to our campus."