KENT STATE Gift funds human evolution institute

The institute will pull together researchers from various fields of science.
KENT -- Kent State University officials have announced the largest cash gift in the university's history.
The $6.8 million donation will be used to establish the Matthew Ferrini Institute for Human Evolutionary Research in the campus' Lowry Hall.
Bruce P. and Pamela Ferrini of Akron made the donation in the name of their late son, university officials said. Bruce Ferrini, a Ravenna native, is a 1971 KSU graduate and nationally known dealer in rare manuscripts.
University President Carol A. Cartwright announced the gift Friday.
Institute's role
The university is touting the institute as "a unique academic center of international importance."
It will provide a Ferrini National Conference on Human Origins, an endowed chair, assistant professorship and graduate fellowship program and an administrative coordinator.
Dr. C. Owen Lovejoy, a KSU anthropology professor, will be the institute's director.
"The establishment of this new approach to the study of human origins is long overdue and will add significantly to the body of knowledge in this critical and intriguing field," Lovejoy said in a prepared statement.
Lovejoy said that current centers focus on "filling in the blanks in the hypothetical family tree" but tell us nothing of "the unique forces that converged to launch what may be the only life form in the universe capable of self-realization."
"Since Charles Darwin's 1871 publication, Descent of Man, both scientists and the public have been increasingly fascinated with understanding how humans came to be," Lovejoy added. "Such a breakthrough is now possible, and Kent State can help bring it about."
A uniqueness of the institute is that it will for the first time allow a collaborative investigation of human evolution by several disciplines, said Scott Rainone, assistant director of media relations at KSU.
Researchers in the fields of psychology, animal behavior, biological anthropology, embryology, genetics and neuroanatomy will gather thoughts and work together, Rainone said.
The donation also allows the university to surpass its goal of raising $100 million in its first comprehensive campaign.