On Jan. 13, 2014, Gary K. Michelson, a retired orthopaedic spinal surgeon whose groundbreaking work generated more than 955 issued or pending patents worldwide, donated $50 million to the University of Southern California (USC) to fund the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience.

The center is the cornerstone of a new collaboration between the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering that aims to transform how research is conducted at the intersection of engineering and the life and biomedical sciences.

Michelson is a board certified orthopaedic spinal surgeon and a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Paralyzed Veterans of America as the year’s Distinguished Scientist for his contributions in the area of the treatment of traumatic spinal disorders. In 2011 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In March he was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors.

Michelson founded, funded and directs three private foundations with endowments in excess of $100 million directed to medical research, animal welfare and education.

The USC Michelson Center stands in the southwest quadrant of the University Park Campus, home to most of the science and engineering buildings, and houses 20 to 30 principal investigators with laboratories employing hundreds of researchers and students. Complete with state-of-the-art flexible labs, a Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis, a nanofabrication facility and a suite of microscopy imaging technology that can take precise measurements inside of cells, the facility is helping draw even more talented researchers to push the frontiers of science at USC.