Troy, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute today announced a $1 million scholarship gift commitment from Jeanne and Frank Fischer ’64, in support of Renaissance at Rensselaer: The Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The Jeanne and Frank Fischer ’64 Scholarship will become part of the Rensselaer endowment, and income from the gift will be used to provide significant scholarship support directly to students. 

“This is exactly the kind of endowment support that Rensselaer needs as a premier technological research university,” said President Shirley Ann Jackson. “Jeanne and Frank Fischer understand how vital it is that we reach out to every talented student, regardless of financial need, if we are to educate the innovators and technology leaders of the 21st century.”

Currently, 89 percent of the Rensselaer undergraduate student body receives some form of financial aid.  Two-thirds of its resident graduate students receive financial support from fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships.

“Jeanne and I are very excited about the tremendous progress in achieving the goals contained in the Rensselaer strategic plan,” Frank Fischer said. “The already-strong faculty continues to be enhanced with the addition of world-class teachers and researchers. Fantastic improvements have been, and continue to be, made with the completion of new and substantially improved facilities. The world’s top students deserve the opportunity to benefit from a Rensselaer education regardless of their financial situation. Jeanne and I are very happy to be able to encourage these outstanding students to attend Rensselaer.”

Frank Fischer has more than 25 years of experience in the medical device industry. He is chief executive officer of NeuroPace Inc., a privately held company in Mountain View, Calif., and had previously served as CEO of Ventritex Inc. and HeartPort Inc.  He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Rensselaer. 

Jeanne Fischer has earned accolades for more than 30 years of leadership in community service. With interests in the fine arts, public education, and senior services, she has served such organizations as the Junior League, Menlo-Atherton High School, the Sequoia High School District Long-Range Planning Commission, and Peninsula Volunteers Inc. Peninsula Volunteers provides low-cost senior housing, meals-on-wheels, respite care for the frail elderly, and operates a social center for seniors.

Longtime alumni volunteers, the Fischers are members of the Stephen Van Rensselaer Society of Patroons, and Frank Fischer serves as a volunteer member of the campaign for biotechnology initiatives, part of the $1 billion Renaissance at Rensselaer: The Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

About the Campaign
The $1 billion Renaissance at Rensselaer: The Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, launched in 2004, fuels the Institute’s strategic Rensselaer Plan, and supports groundbreaking interdisciplinary programs which have at their core the technologies driving innovations in the 21st century: biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and experimental media. The campaign aims to build the Institute unrestricted endowment, and also seeks funds for endowed scholarships and fellowships, faculty positions, curriculum support, student life programs, and athletic programs and facilities. To date, the effort has raised $664 million, more than three times the amount raised in Rensselaer’s previous campaign that ended in 1993.

Contact: Theresa Bourgeois
Phone: (518) 276-2840
E-mail: bourgt@rpi.edu