POTSDAM -- The Shipley Foundation, a long-time Clarkson University benefactor, has announced a gift to support the growth and sustainability of the university's Shipley Center for Innovation.

The amount of the grant, while substantial, is confidential, according to university spokesman Michael Griffin.

Among the Shipley Center’s aims is to accelerate the commercialization of research findings into the marketplace and to foster the exchange of ideas among the university's academic departments and other regional institutions and industry. The center also brings an entrepreneurial focus to the work of students and faculty.

The late Charles and Lucia Shipley founded and built the Shipley Company into a multi-million dollar international corporation that has made significant discoveries in specialty chemicals for the electronics industry. The company’s early involvement in microelectronics and semiconductors resulted in numerous domestic and foreign patents. The Shipleys’ connection to the university spans more than 35 years.

The Shipley Foundation provided funding to the university's School of Business, launching the Shipley Center in the late 1990s. In the last two years, the center has facilitated 40 new start-ups. It has over 100 projects in the pipeline as it fulfills its mission as an engine for regional economic development by creating and fostering new enterprises capitalizing on emerging technologies.

The foundation also endowed a fellowship in chemistry and the Egon Matijevic Chaired Professor of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science and underwrites the Shipley Distinguished Lecture Series.

"Innovation drives modern, globalized knowledge-based economies. Universities are key idea generators and contributors to economic development. The Shipley Center for Innovation is creating a legacy of successes in commercialization and new technology development, just as Charles and Lucia Shipley and their company did," said university president Tony Collins.