A former student has decided to honor a former mentor, UT integrative biology professor Larry Gilbert, with a gift to the Brackenridge Field Laboratory. Gilbert is approaching retirement after 28 years as the lab's director.

Roger Worthington, a UT alumnus and California-based trial lawyer, and his wife, Ann, will donate $500,000 to UT's College of Natural Sciences to establish the Lawrence E. Gilbert, Jr. Excellence Endowment. The donation will be used to promote "research, teaching and outreach for ecology, evolution, population and environmental biology," said Kay Thomas, director of external relations for the College of Natural Sciences.

Worthington took a Plan II ecology course with Gilbert in 1980 and said the course opened his eyes to the impact humans have on the environment.

The college will establish the endowment at a time when the field lab's role within the Brackenridge tract is in question.

The UT System Board of Regents contracted design firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners in March to create a plan to maximize the tract's value by developing the land. The firm will submit a plan by next June. The field lab comprises about 82 acres of the 345-acre Brackenridge Tract.

"I like the idea that major, great, forward-looking universities have their own field stations," Worthington said. "Brackenridge is both a living library and a laboratory. No one would ever propose tearing down Perry-Castaneda [library] to put up a condominium."

Worthington said other programs on campus, such as the chemistry department and engineering and law schools, would have no shortage of alumni or companies looking to reinvest but that there is no "financial or capitalistic interest in preserving a piece of land."

He said he hopes his donation will encourage other alumni to rally to preserve the lab in its present form.

Thomas said the first portion of the endowment, $4,800, will be distributed by Aug. 31.

The endowment is intended to eventually fund a professorship in the field lab. The field lab's director will use the endowment as a discretionary fund for research and teaching.

Anytime an endowment is created, the University of Texas Investment Management Company invests the funds and redistributes them on a quarterly basis, Thomas said.

"It's very important for the University to not only attract, but retain, top faculty and endowments. The one the Worthingtons have set up really help us with that," Thomas said. "Not only do they support this field of study, they also support the operations of the Brackenridge Field Lab."

*** POSTED AUGUST 12, 2008 ***