Grant from Goldman Fund caps capital campaign for state-of-the-art marine sciences lab and classrooms at Romberg Tiburon Center

SAN FRANCISCO, August 31, 2006 -- A grant totaling $445,000 from the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund has completed a $7 million capital campaign for building and program improvements at San Francisco State University's Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies (RTC). The Goldman funding will be applied to marine lab, classroom and faculty office renovations.

The renovation will transform an old, hangar-like structure into a 44,500-square-foot multifunctional education and research facility featuring state-of-the-art marine biology and oceanography labs as well as classrooms and offices. The labs will house the research conducted by distinguished faculty and graduate and undergraduate students. The classrooms will accommodate RTC's courses in the marine sciences as well as for Bay Area middle and high school science teachers.

"All of the staff, researchers and faculty at the Romberg Tiburon Center are extremely grateful to the Goldman Fund for this support," said RTC Acting Director and researcher Newell (Toby) Garfield. "It allows us to finally complete the crucial facilities that we have needed for a long time."

Other projects at RTC developed or enhanced by the $7 million campaign include an ocean observing laboratory, a wetlands ecology lab and a National Estuarine Reserve Research headquarters and lab. Contributors to the campaign in addition to the Goldman Fund included the W.M. Keck Foundation, Marin Community Foundation, The Clear Genesis Foundation, the federal government and the RTC Board of Directors and other private donors.

The Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, part of San Francisco State University, is the only academic research institution on San Francisco Bay. Research conducted on site contributes to the scientific understanding and environmental protection of bay, ocean and wetlands ecosystems worldwide. For more information about RTC and its programs, visit http://rtc.sfsu.edu/.

Since its establishment in 1951 by San Francisco philanthropists and civic leaders Richard and Rhoda Goldman, the Goldman Fund has contributed more than $450 million to a variety of charitable causes in San Francisco, as well as nationally and internationally. The Fund supports programs that focus on improving the quality of life in the San Francisco Bay Area, the environment, democracy and civic participation, and Jewish affairs. For more information visit www.goldmanfund.org.