Giving to CIPS
To maintain our intellectual leadership in Astronomy and Planetary Science, we increasingly rely on alumni and friends for research and programmatic support. We invite you to make a gift to one of our funding priorities, listed below, or to a priority of your choice.
Student Observatory Fund
The Student Observatory Fund is a vitally important investment in our future. It will sustain the new teaching observatory being built on the rooftop of New Campbell Hall and also upgrade our undergraduate lab and associated telescope facilities for our majors.
Automated Planet Finder (APF) Telescope Support
To launch the search for earthlike planets, a dedicated robotic facility, the Automated Planet Finder (APF) was constructed at Lick Observatory. Over $8M was secured to build the telescope, dome, and spectrometer. Additional funding is needed, however, for ongoing maintenance and operations, estimated at $100K per year. The UC Berkeley Planet Search Team invites interested individuals and organizations to join as financial partners, investing in leading-edge research that will enable the search for Earths around other stars. There is a naming opportunity for the telescope.
The Search for Extrasolar Planets
This established fund supports the UC Berkeley Planet Search Team in the hunt for other Earth-like planets around other stars. The team uses the Keck telescope in Hawaii, with its 10-meter diameter mirror and large spectrometer, to measure the spectra of the stars that harbor planets.
Endow a Professorship in Planetary Science
Establishing this fund would enable us to recruit an eminent senior scholar who can provide future leadership to CIPS. Funds to endow a chair would be invested by Berkeley so that earnings and appreciation of the investment would support the distinguished faculty member who is designated as the chair holder.
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If you would like to contribute to the search for new worlds, please contact CIPS Director and UC Berkeley Professor, Michael Manga. Donations can be sent directly to CIPS. Checks should be made out to “UC Berkeley Foundation” and addressed to:
The Center for Integrative Planetary Science (CIPS)
Department of Astronomy
501 Campbell Hall MC 3411
UC Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-3411
CIPS also welcomes your gifts of stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares, property or real estate, life insurance policies and retirement plan accounts and bequests through your will or trust. Contributions through charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts are also effective ways to provide long-term support. Because CIPS is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) scientific and educational research organization, all donations are tax-deductible and may offer significant tax advantages. Please contact us for further information.