UCLA - University of California - Los Angeles
04/07/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/07/2025 11:03
Family gift enables UCLA to establish first endowed department chair in physical sciences
Key takeaways
- The late UCLA College professor Michio Yanai was a global meteorological expert; the late Yoko Yanai, his wife, established a distinguished lecture in his honor.
- The Yanai family pledged $1.35 million, which will be combined with a division match of $675,000 to fund the chair.
- Professor Jacob Bortnik is the inaugural chair holder.
The UCLA Division of Physical Sciences has established the Michio and Yoko Yanai Endowed Department Chair in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, supported by a $1.35 million commitment from the Yanai family - the couple's sons Takashi and Satoshi Yanai, along with Patti Rhee and JoAn Cho - combined with a division match of $675,000.
"The research of the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences has never been more vital than it is today," said the Yanai family. "We are honored to support the department's work in remembrance of our beloved parents and their enduring devotion to the department and its mission."
Michio Yanai was a globally influential, collaborative and farsighted member of the AOS faculty from the late 1960s until his death in 2010. His wife Yoko Yanai was a respected public accountant who established the Century & Yanai accounting firm, where she served as president until 2021 and remained active as a consultant until her death in January 2022. The couple met while classmates at the University of Tokyo and married in 1965.
Michio Yanai was a scholar with far-ranging research interests - including the easterly waves of tropical cyclones, the intraseasonal oscillation of equatorial waves, cloud clusters and the interannual variability of monsoons - and his impact is still very much felt today, in part due to the department's annual Michio Yanai Distinguished Lecture, which Yoko Yanai was instrumental in establishing through her philanthropy.
"We are so grateful for this gift - as visionary as it is heartfelt - to celebrate the remarkable legacy of Michio and Yoko Yanai," said Miguel García-Garibay, dean of physical sciences and senior dean of the UCLA College. "This is the first endowment in the history of our division to be established in support of a department chair, and only the third such endowment for the UCLA College's 34 degree-awarding full departments."
The two other endowed department chairs in the UCLA College are the Robert N. Burr Endowed History Department Chair in the division of social sciences and the Sherie L. Morrison Legacy Department Chair in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics in the division of life sciences. In addition to fulfilling teaching and research duties alongside their fellow professors, department chairs perform administrative functions essential to the university, such as mentoring junior faculty, establishing the curriculum and overseeing the tenure process.
Jacob Bortnik, a UCLA professor of space physics since 2004 and the founding faculty director of the UCLA SPACE Institute, is the inaugural holder of the Michio and Yoko Yanai Endowed Department Chair in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
"We are honored that Takashi, Satoshi, Patti and JoAn chose to make this generous gift to AOS," said Bortnik, who has served as AOS department chair since 2023. "It inspires our community to support the important work of the department. The family's generosity will serve as an enduring testament to Michio and Yoko Yanai's legacy of groundbreaking science and generous service to UCLA."