UMass Chan receives $15M gift for ALS, neuroscience research

Photo | Grant Welker UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester

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UMass alumni Dan and Diane Casey Riccio have pledged $15 million to UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester to support ALS and neuroscience research, the school announced Thursday.

Of the $15 million, $10 million will be set aside for the Riccio ALS Accelerator Initiative and $5 million will be used to expand and endow the Riccio Fund for Neuroscience.

Dan Riccio serves as vice president of engineering at Apple, Inc. and graduated from UMass Amherst with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in 1986. Diane Riccio received her doctorate from UMass’ Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 2003 and works with the Alzheimer’s Association of Northern California and Northern Nevada, where she serves on the board of directors, according to UMass.

The pair have donated to the school twice before, and, as a result, have developed on an ongoing relationship with the school's chancellor, Dr. Michael Collins.

"Dan has been a visionary leader for a long time and he said if there is something you really need, I wish you would think about that and let me know," Collins said.

That offer turned into a conversation about ALS and neuroscience research, which Collins said the Riccios are particularly keen on supporting.

While the gift, itself, did not come as a complete surprise, the dollar amount did. Collins said such funding provides a boost of confidence in the research the school is conducting.

When asked whether the gift would help create jobs at the school, Collins said research, including into a cure for ALS, was the priority.

“These gifts aren’t about job creation, they’re about science creation," Collins said.

This pledge is the third and largest gift the Riccios have pledged to the UMass Chan school. In 2013, they gave $1 million to the UMass ALS Cellucci Fund, and in 2017, they gave $1 million to establish the Dan and Diane Riccio Fund for Neuroscience as well as an additional $1 million to support the Cellucci Fund.

This is the largest gift UMass Chan has received since the school received $175 million from The Morningside Foundation last summer. That gift prompted the school to change its name from UMass Medical School to UMass Chan Medical School, in recognition of the foundation’s founders, the Chan family of Hong Kong.