Windsor resident Andlinger gives Princeton $100 million for research

Gerhard R. (Gerry) Andlinger, a seasonal Windsor resident who rose from modest Austrian beginnings to become a noted business executive, has given Princeton University $100 million to accelerate research to address the problem of global warming.

The gift by Andlinger, who graduated from Princeton in 1952, will support creation of the Gerhard R. Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, which will focus on "effective and sustainable solutions to problems of energy and the environment."

The donation is the second largest ever to Princeton, and one of the largest ever to any university.

Andlinger, chairman of the New York-based private investment firm Andlinger & Company which he formed in 1976, and his wife Jeanne spent time at a home in John's Island for more than a decade before moving to Windsor two years ago.

"Princeton University already has substantial work under way on a variety of energy-related and environmental problems, from both the technological and public policy perspectives," Andlinger said.

"My hope in establishing this center is to bring those strengths together and focus them on finding 'cleantech' solutions to the most important problems facing our society today," he said.

Major research areas will include improving energy efficiency and conservation, developing sustainable energy sources, and improving the management of carbon, with a focus on moving discoveries rapidly to the marketplace.

"The work of the center will help create a better world for our children and grandchildren, which I see as a personal as well as institutional responsibility," he added.

Princeton president Shirley M. Tilghman, in expressing gratitude for Andlinger's "visionary and transformative gift," said "as we witness the soaring global demand for energy and its profound environmental impact, we have a tremendous responsibility to turn our scientific knowledge into concerted action.

"Gerry Andlinger is positioning Princeton to bring its very significant strengths in science, engineering, and public policy to bear on the challenge of developing technologies that will provide future generations with a healthy environment and sustainable sources of energy.

" I am enormously grateful to Gerry for his generosity and leadership," Tilghman said.

A longtime supporter of Princeton, Andlinger established the Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professorship of Social Sciences in 1991, and in 2000 gave $25 million to Princeton to create the Andlinger Center for the Humanities.