The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact is an ambitious initiative to fast-track bioengineering and life science discoveries into innovations that improve the quality of life for people in Oregon, the nation, and the world. The campus creates the intellectual and physical infrastructure to establish Oregon as a center for both research and development in bioengineering and applied sciences—making Oregon a go-to destination for researchers, innovators, and companies to make discoveries, create startups, grow, and stay.
A Moonshot Idea
In the summer of 2015, newly appointed University of Oregon President Michael Schill convened a group of science faculty to imagine a moonshot initiative that would create lasting impact and raise the profile of the university. Over the following year, roughly 20 faculty members from biology, chemistry, physics, human physiology, geology, mathematics, and the College of Education met under the leadership of then-Vice President for Research and Innovation Brad Shelton to shape the vision. Faculty leaders—including chemist Jim Hutchison, biologist Bill Cresko, and microbiologist Karen Guillemin—played instrumental roles in refining the concept, building on the university’s deeply collaborative culture and established strengths in discovery science. What began as an ambitious conversation evolved into a compelling vision for accelerating the path from scientific discovery to real-world application. Faculty recognized that, while the UO had world-class expertise across disciplines ranging from neuroscience to materials science, achieving transformational impact would require expanding into engineering and applied sciences.
After months of preparation, including rehearsal sessions and role-playing exercises to ensure the team could clearly communicate both the scientific opportunity and the university’s distinctive culture, Hutchison, Cresko, and Guillemin joined then-President Schill and then-Vice President for Advancement Mike Andreasen in December 2015 to present the vision to Phil Knight. Their proposal resonated. In 2016, Phil and Penny Knight pledged $500 million over ten years to launch what would become the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. At the time, it was the largest philanthropic gift ever made to a public university. University leaders later reflected that it was the authenticity, passion, and engagement of the faculty themselves that distinguished the proposal from many others the Knights had considered. President Schill appointed biology professor Patrick Phillips as acting executive director of the initiative. Phillips then recruited Moira Kiltie as chief of staff and Naomi Crow as business manager to help build the new enterprise from the ground up.
Laying the Foundation
The months following the historic gift announcement were filled with activity. President Schill tasked Phillips with a clear set of priorities: recruit and hire a permanent executive director, launch development of the first Knight Campus building, and establish the governance policies and administrative structure needed to support a bold new scientific venture. Working alongside the initial leadership team and in close collaboration with faculty leaders assembled as the Internal Advisory Board (IAB), Phillips helped guide each of these ambitious efforts to a successful outcome. The IAB included representatives from the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, the Graduate School, the Lundquist College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the departments of biology, human physiology, chemistry/biochemistry, physics, psychology, and math. Together, the group laid the operational and cultural foundation for what would become the Knight Campus, while also establishing an early pattern of execution and momentum that positioned the initiative for continued growth. Among the IAB’s first accomplishments was defining the mission and vision of the Knight Campus. “Science Advancing Society” emerged as the guiding principle, capturing its goal of dramatically shortening the timeline between scientific discovery and societal impact through world-class research, training, and entrepreneurship within a nimble scientific enterprise.
During this time, the Graduate Internship Program and the Bioinformatics & Genomics Master’s Program—two long-standing and highly successful University of Oregon programs—were brought together under one home within the Knight Campus in 2017. Under the co-directorship of Stacey York and Stacey Wagner, these programs were unified as the Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program (KCGIP), combining their strengths to provide accelerated, interdisciplinary training while equipping students with the real-world experience and professional skills needed for successful careers. Since its launch, KCGIP has become a national model for workforce development. The program has continued to expand, adding a Molecular Probes and Sensors track and securing significant external support—including grants from the state of Oregon and participation in an NSF-funded initiative to strengthen pathways for STEM students from community colleges to the university, earn a bachelor's degree through the College of Arts and Sciences and continue to a master's degree through KCGIP.
At the end of 2017, Robert E. Guldberg, a renowned expert in bioengineering and regenerative medicine from Georgia Tech, was announced as the inaugural permanent executive director and a vice president of the University of Oregon after an extensive national search. He and his wife, Tina Guldberg, moved to Oregon in the summer of 2018. Prior to his arrival, Guldberg launched a strategic planning process, bringing together close to 100 internal and external stakeholders to further refine the Knight Campus direction and establish the strategic priorities that would guide its work.
During this period, significant progress was made on the infrastructure needed to bring the Knight Campus vision to life. In collaboration with colleagues in a number of University of Oregon units, the Knight Campus acquired properties along Franklin Boulevard, constructed a new campus parking structure, and restored the adjacent millrace. With these foundational projects complete, the Knight Campus celebrated the groundbreaking of Building 1 in March 2018, marking the beginning of construction.
In the fall of 2018, Guldberg formed an External Advisory Board composed of both industry and academic leaders for counsel on programs and policies. Guldberg also launched the Knight Campus Undergraduate Scholars (KCUS) program in January 2019, pairing promising undergraduates in their second or third year with research mentors and immersing them in a 12-month comprehensive research experience in Knight Campus-affiliated labs.
In the spring of 2019, while operating from temporary offices adjacent to the future building site, the Knight Campus released the completed strategic plan, articulating a bold vision to establish a new paradigm for scientific inquiry that accelerates the translation of discoveries into societal impact. The plan outlined five strategic priorities to guide the Knight Campus and measure its success: catalyze impactful convergent research collaborations, accelerate the innovation cycle, train the next generation of applied scientists, cultivate a diverse and inclusive community, and communicate discovery and innovation. As a living document, the strategic plan is designed to be periodically updated to reflect evolving opportunities and priorities. First revised in 2023, it continues to guide decision-making across the Knight Campus.
The strategic plan also identified key scientific focus areas that began to take shape with the recruitment of the Knight Campus’s first four tenure-track faculty members, hired in the summer of 2019: Keat Ghee Ong, Calin Plesa, Marian Hettiaratchi, and Tim Gardner. Together, these faculty established a strong interdisciplinary foundation spanning smart biomedical devices and implantable sensors, synthetic biology and genome engineering, regenerative medicine and biomaterials, and neural circuits and computational neuroscience—research areas that exemplify the Knight Campus model of convergent science with the potential to improve human health. Knight Campus leadership also continued to take shape during this period. Jim Hutchison, who had been instrumental in the Knight Campus’s formation and early leadership, was formally appointed senior associate vice president in the summer of 2019. The position was created to provide dedicated academic and research leadership as the Knight Campus expanded in both size and ambition, establishing a clear second-in-command to support its growing portfolio of academic programs, research, and strategic initiatives.
Opening the Doors
Another significant milestone came with the launch of the joint bioengineering PhD program with Oregon State University (OSU). Announced in 2020 as the University of Oregon’s first degree program in engineering, the partnership represented a major realization of the Knight Campus vision to expand the university’s strengths in engineering and applied sciences while accelerating the translation of discovery into societal benefit. Developed through a strong partnership between the Knight Campus and the OSU College of Engineering, the program was intentionally designed to bridge disciplines, institutions, and approaches to research—combining the Knight Campus’s emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship, and use-inspired science with Oregon State’s nationally recognized engineering expertise. Rather than competing, the two institutions leveraged their complementary strengths to create a program that gave students access to faculty, facilities, and collaborative opportunities across both universities.
More broadly, the program demonstrated the Knight Campus strategy in action: building the partnerships, infrastructure, and training environment needed to attract exceptional talent, strengthen Oregon’s scientific and engineering capacity, and prepare researchers to tackle complex, real-world challenges. The inaugural cohort arrived in fall 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping establish the collaborative, entrepreneurial, and impact-driven culture that would define the program in its earliest years.
That same fall, during the pandemic and under the smoky skies of an unprecedented wildfire season, the Knight Campus began moving into the newly completed Building 1, which celebrated its grand opening in December 2020. Built by Hoffman Construction of Beaverton and designed by Ennead of New York and Bora Architects of Portland, the building serves as a prominent new gateway to the University of Oregon at a significant intersection in Eugene, with a graceful glass bridge symbolically and practically connecting the traditional science complex with the new activities in bioengineering and applied sciences. Across five thoughtfully designed floors, it supports research, graduate training, public engagement, and innovation through a range of specialized facilities and shared spaces. A covered outdoor terrace on the second floor provides a welcoming setting for informal gatherings and campus events throughout the year. Building features include shared equipment facilities in the basement (a research-focused clean room and facilities for imaging, 3-D printing, and rapid fabrication), dry- and wet-lab training spaces on the first and second floors, access-controlled research lab spaces for principal investigators on the third and fourth floors, and a 4,000-square-foot innovation incubator designed to support startup companies through flexible wet-lab bench space and private laboratory suites.
From Lab to Market
Innovation and entrepreneurship have been central to the Knight Campus mission since its earliest days. Recognizing that scientific discoveries achieve their greatest impact when translated into products, therapies, and technologies that benefit society, the Knight Campus intentionally built programs and partnerships to help faculty and trainees navigate the path from laboratory discovery to commercialization.
One of the key architects of these efforts was Lundquist College of Business Professor Andrew Nelson, whose early leadership helped shape many of the innovation policies and programs that continue today. Nelson drafted the founding framework for the innovation center, launched the quarterly Entrepreneurship Speaker Series, and helped develop programming that introduced faculty and trainees to innovation and entrepreneurship. Following his return to the Lundquist College of Business, Nelson continued to partner with the Knight Campus, including helping establish an entrepreneurship specialization that equips bioengineering graduate students with business skills and exposes them to new career pathways. Additional initiatives, including startup incorporation support for faculty entrepreneurs and networking programs connecting researchers with university and regional innovation resources, further strengthened the Knight Campus innovation ecosystem. In 2022, these efforts received a major boost through a $5 million gift from the Papé family to expand innovation resources for startup companies and industry partners.
With that gift, the Knight Campus's growing commitment to entrepreneurship was reflected in the development of the Papé Family Innovation Centers. When Building 1 opened in 2020, its innovation space was temporarily repurposed to house the Monitoring and Assessment Program (MAP), which provided COVID-19 testing for the University of Oregon and the surrounding community. After MAP concluded in 2023, the space transitioned to its intended purpose, welcoming its first startup companies later that year, and reached more than 80 percent occupancy by fall 2025.
Reflecting its commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration, the Knight Campus also sought to integrate art and design into its new research environment. In addition to the state's public art requirement of 1 percent of the capital budget, the Knight Campus partnered with the University of Oregon's College of Design and the Center for Art Research (CFAR) to create new opportunities for engagement between artists and researchers. Programs such as the CFAR Project Incubator residency invite artists to work alongside scientists and engineers, reinforcing the Knight Campus belief that innovation often emerges at the intersection of different ways of thinking and creating.
Investing in People
As faculty established their research programs in Building 1, the Knight Campus expanded the infrastructure needed to support their long-term success. New initiatives included science communication training for faculty, internal research support programs designed to leverage external funding and expand postdoctoral training opportunities, and a growing network of partnerships that strengthened the research ecosystem.
A cornerstone of these efforts was the creation of the Knight Campus IMPACT Team, an interdisciplinary group that brings together expertise from the Knight Campus, the School of Journalism and Communication, the Lundquist College of Business, and the Knight Library. The IMPACT Team was established to provide intentional career development programming tailored to the unique needs of Knight Campus trainees. Its signature offering is a required weeklong orientation for incoming bioengineering PhD students, featuring workshops on science communication, innovation and entrepreneurship, grant and fellowship writing, professional relationship building, and career development. Throughout the year, the team also provides career coaching, science communication training, grant writing support, and professional development resources for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
The Knight Campus also expanded opportunities for researchers at other career stages. In partnership with PeaceHealth, it launched the Center for Translational Biomedical Research, a postdoctoral fellowship program to support fellows whose research required close clinical collaboration. At the undergraduate level, a successful fundraising effort enabled the Knight Campus Undergraduate Scholars program to grow to support 20 students each year, providing more aspiring scientists with early, hands-on research experience.
Going Global
Building on the momentum and success of Phase 1, the Knight Campus began pursuing a broader vision: to become a globally recognized hub where interdisciplinary teams translate scientific discovery into real-world impact at scale. That vision took a significant step forward in 2021 when a landmark $220 million gift from Joe Tsai and Clara Wu established the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a global collaborative effort dedicated to advancing human health and performance through scientific discovery and innovation.
As a founding member of the Alliance, the University of Oregon's Knight Campus joined Stanford University, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the UC San Diego, the University of Kansas, and the Women's Health, Sports & Performance Institute (a Harvard Medical School affiliate) in a first-of-its-kind research consortium focused on understanding the fundamental principles of peak human performance, rather than disease alone. Guldberg serves on the Alliance leadership council and assembled a team of colleagues, including human physiology professor Mike Hahn and bioengineering associate professor Nick Willett, who are shaping Oregon's participation in the Alliance and its scientific vision.
The University of Oregon received the second-largest share of the Alliance's initial funding, after Stanford, which serves as the consortium hub. At Oregon, the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance has supported more than 15 interdisciplinary research projects involving investigators from the Knight Campus, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Design, and Oregon Athletics. The initiative has also inspired philanthropic support to establish a permanent endowment, ensuring the university's long-term participation in the Alliance.
Since its founding, the Alliance has expanded to include more than 25 institutions across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, creating a global network dedicated to advancing human performance research through collaboration. As the Alliance’s work took hold, the Knight Campus also helped launch the Global Sport University Network (GSUN), an international consortium that brings together universities from around the world to address complex challenges in sport, health, and human performance through interdisciplinary research that no single institution could accomplish alone.
The Alliance has also sparked new collaborations closer to home. In 2026, the University of Oregon launched the Peak Oregon initiative, a new partnership between UO Athletics, the Department of Human Physiology, and the Knight Campus to boost athletic performance and improve human health Building directly on connections forged through the Wu Tsai Alliance, Peak Oregon reflects the cross-campus collaboration at the heart of the Knight Campus model: bringing together people with different expertise toward a shared goal, with an outcome greater than the sum of its parts.
Phase 2: Scaling Up
In 2021, as the Knight Campus continued to expand its research enterprise, attract outstanding faculty, and establish ambitious national and international partnerships, its progress reinforced the transformative vision Phil and Penny Knight had first embraced in 2016. Throughout this period, Guldberg regularly shared updates with the Knights and other supporters, highlighting the initiative's growing momentum, early successes, and vision for the future.
In July 2021, Phil and Penny Knight reaffirmed their extraordinary commitment to the Knight Campus with a second $500 million pledge, to be invested over the next decade (2021–2030) in support of Phase 2 of the initiative. This second investment was designed to build upon the success of Phase 1 by scaling the people, programs, and research infrastructure needed to establish the University of Oregon as a world-class hub for bioengineering and applied science. Like the original gift, the funding supports capital construction, operations for an expanding research organization, and the development of a permanent endowment to sustain the Knight Campus for generations to come.
Planning for Phase 2 began immediately. The Knight Campus engaged ZGF Architects of Portland and Hoffman Construction to design and construct Building 2, while faculty leadership launched a multi-year recruitment strategy focused on expanding expertise in key scientific areas that complemented the strengths of the founding faculty. Together, these efforts laid the foundation for the Knight Campus's next era of growth.
As Phase 2 took shape, the completion of the second Knight Campus building marked another significant step in realizing the initiative's long-term vision. The new facility was designed to support a fully developed Department of Bioengineering while providing a home for the university's growing biomedical data science enterprise. The four-story, 185,000-square-foot building welcomed its first occupants in March 2026, significantly expanding the Knight Campus's capacity for research, education, and innovation.
Connected to Building 1 by a skybridge, Building 2 has capacity to house more than 20 interdisciplinary research groups working at the intersection of bioengineering and biomedical data science, along with teaching laboratories, collaborative research neighborhoods, and spaces for experiential learning. A $10 million investment from the state of Oregon equipped the building's shared core facilities with leading-edge instrumentation available to researchers across the University of Oregon and external partners. The facility also includes a second Papé Family Innovation Center with additional modular incubator laboratories to support the next generation of startup companies translating research into societal impact, a student maker space, the Knight Campus BioFoundry, and inviting shared spaces—including an open courtyard and café overlooking the Millrace—that foster collaboration and community.
Together, the two Knight Campus buildings will provide space for approximately 750 faculty, staff, researchers, and students. Designed to support discovery, education, innovation, and entrepreneurship, the expanded campus provides the infrastructure needed to sustain continued growth and impact in the years ahead.
A Decade of Growth
The growth of the Knight Campus has been made possible not only through the transformational generosity of Phil and Penny Knight, but also through the support of an expanding community of philanthropic partners. Following the appointment of Chief Development Officer Callie Johnston in 2020, the Knight Campus significantly expanded its fundraising efforts, cultivating a robust pipeline of principal gift donors and strengthening partnerships across the university. By the end of 2025, these efforts had generated nearly $105 million in cumulative philanthropy beyond the Knight gifts, supporting research, education, innovation, and student programs through gifts ranging from a few dollars to $35 million.
This philanthropic investment has enabled the Knight Campus to significantly increase its research capacity. Since 2019, the faculty has grown to 17 principal investigators leading interdisciplinary research programs supported by more than 200 faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and student employees. Collectively, Knight Campus investigators have secured more than $75 million in sponsored research funding, advancing discoveries across bioengineering, biomedical data science, and related fields.
Education has likewise expanded in both scale and scope. The creation of the University of Oregon's first Department of Bioengineering established a foundation for new academic programs, including the joint doctoral program with Oregon State University and an undergraduate minor in bioengineering. In 2020, the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) approved development of an undergraduate bioengineering degree, and in 2022 the department welcomed inaugural Lorry Lokey Chair of the Department of Bioengineering, Danielle Benoit. In 2024, the Knight Campus launched the interdisciplinary Brewing Innovation minor, fulfilling a long-held vision of Jim Hutchison by using the science of brewing to teach innovation, design thinking, and entrepreneurship. Undergraduate research opportunities have also grown substantially through the Knight Campus Undergraduate Scholars (KCUS) program, which has supported 105 students since its launch in 2019, and the introduction of a fully funded summer undergraduate research experience in 2025. Altogether, the Knight Campus engaged 513 students and trainees during fiscal year 2025, a 23 percent increase over the previous year.
A Connected Community
Collaboration remains a defining characteristic of the Knight Campus. In addition to its long-standing partnership with OSU and its partnership with PeaceHealth, the Knight Campus has established major interdisciplinary collaborations across Oregon and beyond. These include the Center for Biomedical Data Science, a partnership with the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) that applies advanced data science to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases; and the Oregon Bioengineering Symposium, a collaborative, annual event sharing innovative research in biomedical engineering and allied areas co-hosted by the UO, OSU, and OHSU.
From its earliest days, the Knight Campus recognized that transformative science depends not only on facilities and funding, but also on a strong and connected community. A variety of programs have been created to foster collaboration, professional growth, and a sense of belonging both within the Knight Campus and beyond. Internally, programs such as Inside Lunch encourage learning and relationship-building across disciplines and roles, while the Inclusion, Diversity, and Outreach Committee (IDOC) strengthens an inclusive culture, advances diversity initiatives, and connects Knight Campus employees with opportunities and resources available across the university. Beyond campus, Science Knight Out brings cutting-edge research to the public through accessible lectures and conversations, while the annual Distinguished Lecture Series introduces the university community to internationally recognized leaders whose work inspires new ideas and engagement. Together, these efforts help create an environment where innovation, collaboration, and scientific impact can thrive.
The Next Chapter
Just over a decade after a small group of faculty began imagining what is now the Knight Campus, what started as a bold vision has transformed the University of Oregon in lasting ways. It has expanded the university's strengths into engineering and applied sciences, attracted exceptional faculty and students, fostered a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and built partnerships that extend from Oregon to institutions around the world.
That record of impact set the stage for the Knights’ most ambitious commitment yet. On Sept. 23, 2026, the University of Oregon announced Phil and Penny Knight’s transformational $1 billion gift to the Knight Campus. The historic gift, the largest given to a comprehensive public university, will enable the campus to scale its academic programs and amplify its mission of accelerated innovation through the launch of the Knight College of Engineering. In a New York Times interview, UO President Karl Scholz called the gift “a screaming endorsement of the importance of what we’re doing.”
As the Knight Campus enters its next chapter, it remains guided by the same founding purpose that brought those first faculty together in 2015: to accelerate scientific discovery into innovations that improve lives while preparing future generations to tackle the world's most complex challenges.
— Updated October 2026