The challenge grant by the Dallas-based O'Donnell Foundation was earned after The Dallas Opera raised $29.5 million in 2025 from well over 100 donors, marking the largest campaign in the company's history.
The investment will establish a new Energy Science, Innovation, and Enterprise program and boost SMU’s reach in recruiting top students and faculty, the university said. One key goal: connecting talent directly with the companies and industries shaping the future.
The Dallas County Promise—powered by Dallas College and the Commit Partnership—said the O’Donnell Foundation investment is "one of the largest education investments supporting economically disadvantaged students in North Texas history."
Molecular biologist Vincent Tagliabracci, who was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 2021, will be honored by the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology for his groundbreaking work on so-called zombie enzymes.
A rendering of the Crow Museum of Asian Art that will be built as part of the new Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum at UT Dallas. [Image: UT Dallas]
The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum will feature three new buildings: a second location for the Crow Museum of Asian Art; a performance hall; and a second museum focused on traditional arts of the Americas. The project's designer, global architectural firm Morphosis, designed the Perot Museum in downtown Dallas.
The University’s newest school in more than 50 years will be named after Peter O’Donnell Jr., the late local investor and visionary philanthropist. The School of Public Health will be "research-intensive,' says Interim Dean Celette Sugg Skinner.
The school plans to welcome its first class of Master of Public Health students in the fall of 2023, followed by classes for Ph.D. students in the fall of 2024.
The next phase of America’s innovation economy will not be built by any one country alone. It will be shaped by partnerships that unite technology leadership, advanced manufacturing, investment and the industrial ecosystems needed to turn bold ideas into sustained growth....
North Texas Giving Day, Dallas-based Communities Foundation of Texas’ biggest fundraiser of the year, set a record for giving. By the event’s official close at midnight Sept. 17, 94,700 donors had given more than $76 million, compared with $74.2 million at midnight in 2025....
The next phase of America’s innovation economy will not be built by any one country alone. It will be shaped by partnerships that unite technology leadership, advanced manufacturing, investment and the industrial ecosystems needed to turn bold ideas into sustained growth....
North Texas Giving Day, Dallas-based Communities Foundation of Texas’ biggest fundraiser of the year, set a record for giving. By the event’s official close at midnight Sept. 17, 94,700 donors had given more than $76 million, compared with $74.2 million at midnight in 2025....