The University of Maryland, College Park announced today a $2 million commitment to its College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) to establish the Eugenia Brin Endowed Chair of Parkinson’s Disease at the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC).
UMCP will receive an additional $1.625 million from the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund (MEIF), a state program created to spur basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields at colleges and universities, to partially match the private donation.
The Maryland Department of Commerce funding will match the gift from UMCP Mathematics Professor Emeritus Michael Brin to honor the memory of his late wife, Eugenia, a NASA research scientist who worked on advancing weather and climate prediction. Eugenia was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1998 at age 50 and passed away in 2024. Mother of UMCP graduates Sergey Brin (B.S. ’93, mathematics and computer science) and Samuel Brin (B.S. ’09, computer science), Eugenia was a leading advocate of research into the neurodegenerative disorder, which destroys the brain’s dopamine-producing neurons and impairs motor control and cognition.
“I am delighted that the University of Maryland and the state of Maryland are partnering to build lasting strength in these fields that have the potential to improve lives in profound ways,” Michael Brin said.
The Brin family’s newest gift, which also establishes the Eugenia Brin Endowed Chair in Data Assimilation in CMNS and the Eugenia Brin Expansive Theatre Endowed Program Support Fund, supports Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless, an ambitious fundraising initiative to raise $2.5 billion to expand access to UMCP’s first-rate education, spur transformative research and create stronger communities. Collectively, the Brin family’s long record of philanthropic support of UMCP totals some $65 million.
“These two new endowed chairs represent a powerful commitment to academic excellence and will help our college attract exceptional faculty members whose teaching, mentorship and research will drive discoveries in environmental science and in the understanding and treatment of Parkinson’s disease,” said CMNS Dean Amitabh Varshney. “We are deeply grateful to Michael Brin for this heartfelt gift honoring his late wife’s memory and to the state for matching his investment.”
CMNS will recruit a new faculty member to UMCP to hold the Eugenia Brin Endowed Chair of Parkinson’s Disease at the UM-IHC who will apply advanced computational approaches to the study and treatment of Parkinson’s disease—one of the most-prevalent neurological disorders with more than 1 million people diagnosed in the United States annually.
“For this chair, we’re looking for someone who can bring artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, bioinformatics and other large-scale, highly computational approaches to understanding the brain, disease progression and potential therapies,” said Adam Porter, co-executive director of UM-IHC and a professor of computer science at UMCP.
Located in North Bethesda, Maryland, the UM-IHC merges computational, clinical and biomedical expertise to improve the health of Maryland residents and advance the state’s biotech industry.
“We are excited to advance a marquee program that intersects computer science and clinical medicine to tackle Parkinson’s Disease,” said Bradley Maron, co-executive director of UM-IHC and the Melvin Sharoky MD Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). “The time is right for bringing a fresh approach to understanding the basis and, thereby, potential treatments for this challenging disorder, and I have no doubt that the UM-IHC is the optimal place for success.”
The chair holder will collaborate with faculty members at UMSOM, including Lisa Shulman, the Eugenia Brin Endowed Professor of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders at UMSOM and director of the University of Maryland Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center, and amplify a growing interdisciplinary effort at UM-IHC to better understand neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s—and translate discoveries into improved patient outcomes. Meeting that challenge requires more than medicine alone. It calls for the combined power of artificial intelligence, molecular neuroscience, disease modeling, and immersive assessment and rehabilitation—areas of distinctive strength at the UMCP, UMSOM and the UM-IHC.
Heng Huang, a professor of computer science at UMCP with a joint appointment at the UM-IHC, is using artificial intelligence to mine genomic, biomarker and cognitive data for earlier signs of Alzheimer’s and related dementias, while also improving the tools used to detect disease. Pratyush Tiwary, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UMCP with joint appointments at the UM-IHC and UMSOM, is opening new therapeutic possibilities through RNA-focused research and innovation with potential applications across neurology and other disease areas.
Varshney, a professor of computer science at UMCP, has collaborated with Shulman and faculty at UMSOM to develop tools to help clinicians compare patient groups across many measures and track how those groups change over time, work that supports efforts to identify meaningful disease subtypes in Parkinson’s. His work also extends into immersive technologies that create new possibilities for training clinicians, capturing movement and neurological symptoms with greater precision, and delivering evidence-based rehabilitation for patients with Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders.
By building on these existing strengths, the new Eugenia Brin Endowed Chair of Parkinson’s Disease will deepen collaboration across the campuses and elevate UM-IHC as a leader in neurodegenerative disease research.
“The Brin family’s partnership with the University of Maryland has helped shape our university through investments in exceptional people and bold ideas,” said UMCP President Darryll J. Pines. “This latest commitment, honoring Eugenia Brin’s legacy, builds on that relationship by investing in outstanding faculty, pioneering research in weather, climate and Parkinson’s disease, and bold artistic innovation. We are deeply grateful for the Brin family’s continued confidence in Maryland and the lasting opportunities this gift will create for our students, faculty and the communities we serve.”
