The UCLA College department of mathematics received a $1 million gift from Professor Emeritus Masamichi Takesaki to endow a new faculty chair in his specialty. The Yuki, Kyoko and Masamichi Takesaki Endowed Chair in Operator Algebras will enhance UCLA’s long-standing strength in the field by enabling the department to recruit and retain top professors, strengthen teaching and support collaborative research.

The gift extends Takesaki’s previous investment in his home department. In 2004 he established the Kristyn Yuki Takesaki Endowed Fund, which has partially sponsored a workshop series in specialized mathematics, on topics such as von Neumann algebras, ergodic theory and group theory.

Takesaki, who joined the UCLA faculty in 1970, earned a 1973 Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2013 was among the inaugural class of fellows elected to the American Mathematical Society. His highly distinguished career in functional analysis and operator algebra yielded several fundamental results that bear his name.

His latest gift is part of the $4.2 billion UCLA Centennial Campaign, which is scheduled to conclude in December 2019 during UCLA’s 100th anniversary year.