$35.5 million gift to UC Irvine computer science from Paul and Jo Butterworth

Former students Paul and Jo Butterworth will donate $35.5 million to UC Irvine, the university announced.

The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences will benefit from the grant, which is the largest alumni gift in the institution’s history. According to a news release from university authorities, it will help students through honors, fellowships, and scholarships and fund research activities.

According to the university, Paul Butterworth was one of the first students to graduate from the computer science department at UC Irvine in the middle of the 1970s. Later, he helped co-found the business software firm Vantiq.

Butterworth received his bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1974 before switching his major to computer science.

In a statement, he stated, “UCI is where I started my career as a computer scientist and software developer.” We continued to collaborate long into the 1980s thanks to a connection I made while attending UCI with another person who was a PhD student at the time. You might say that all of my accomplishments truly began at UCI.

Butterworth claimed that without the financial aid he received in college, he would not have been able to complete his degree.

“Because I had no money, I thought about not enrolling in the institution unless I could get financial aid. But when UCI came through with a package to assist, that was what really changed everything, he said. This is what motivated us to commit to supporting students so they can pursue their aspirations regardless of their financial circumstances.

Jo Butterworth graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from UC Irvine in 1975.

The Butterworths are “our institution’s greatest champions of students,” according to Chancellor Howard Gillman.

Paul Butterworth worked in technical capacities at Oracle, Sun, and Ingres in addition to co-founding Vantiq and the cloud platform development business Emotive. According to the institution, he has worked in the computer science field for the last 50 years.

Universities were the driving force behind all of this development, according to Butterworth, because that’s where the core technologies were created. Since education is where we can have the largest influence, Jo and I are dedicated to helping UCI and its students.