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Distributed December 6, 2004
Contact Mark Nickel

Stephen Robert, chancellor and a 1962 graduate of Brown University, has given $500,000 to establish The Chancellor Stephen Robert Fellowship. The fellowship, which includes the highest annual stipend awarded by the Brown Graduate School, will be given to three doctoral candidates in its inaugural academic year, 2005-06.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University Chancellor Stephen Robert has given $500,000 to establish a new fellowship for graduate students in any discipline. The Chancellor Stephen Robert Fellowship will offer the highest annual stipend that the Graduate School awards to attract an outstanding applicant to Brown. The Fellowship will also include a year of dissertation support and guaranteed summer support and will make available funds where appropriate for recruitment.

Providing increased support for graduate students is a high priority in the University’s multiyear Plan for Academic Enrichment, and Brown has already made significant progress in increasing the support it offers to doctoral students, according to Karen Newman, dean of the Graduate School. The Chancellor’s gift helps advance that effort and will also support the University’s efforts to recruit more of the nation’s most promising graduate students. Applications to the Graduate School increased by more than 40 percent between 2001 and 2004.

“Our faculty work to recruit and retain the very best students,” Newman said, “but at the graduate level, student decisions about which school to attend are closely tied to funding. This fellowship will allow us to compete more effectively with peer institutions. We hope Chancellor Robert’s gift will stimulate increased giving to the Brown Graduate School.”

The Chancellor Stephen Robert Fellowship will be open to nominations from any discipline. Programs or departments will nominate their most outstanding applicants, and the Graduate School will designate the recipient. Income from this fellowship fund will allow Brown to offer two additional fellowships in 2005-06, the inaugural year.

Stephen Robert

Stephen Robert, 63, is chancellor of Brown University, chairman of Robert Capital Management, LLC, and former chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer Group Inc. He earned his undergraduate degree from Brown University in 1962 and attended Columbia Business School and the London School of Economics.

Robert joined Oppenheimer & Co. in 1968 as a portfolio manager of the Oppenheimer Fund. He became a partner of Oppenheimer & Co. in 1970 and a member of the Executive Committee and director of research in 1977. In 1979, he became president of the firm and in1983 assumed the role of chairman and CEO. In March 1986, Robert led a management team which returned Oppenheimer to private ownership through a management buy-out. In November 1997, Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. was acquired by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Robert has served Brown University as vice chancellor, fellow and trustee. He is on the President’s Advisory Council at Teachers College, Columbia University, and is a director of the New York Philharmonic and Thirteen/WNET.

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