UBC announced the huge gift Monday and said it is to go toward a new facility that integrates brain research and patient care.
The facility will be named the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. UBC said the gift is the latest in a long history of philanthropic efforts by Mowafaghian to advance children’s health and education around the world.
In the UBC announcemnent, Mowafaghian was quoted as saying, “I was attracted to the UBC Faculty of Medicine for the research it conducts and its efforts to find cures for brain disorders affecting children,” adding that his decision to support the project came after he suffered a stroke last April.
“I am lucky that I have recovered,” Mowafaghian said. “But thousands more people per year in Canada suffer strokes, with many of them dying or never fully recovering. It is my hope that this facility will help lay the foundation for future discoveries in brain health and make a difference in the lives of the children of British Columbia and beyond.
“The brain has been referred to as the last frontier of medicine,” he said. “I hope that my gift will enable doctors and researchers to reach that frontier.”
Mowafaghian ran a general contracting company in Iran during the 1970s. He settled in Vancouver in 1987. Shortly afterward, he established V1500 Holdings Inc., a commercial real estate firm that developed and managed several properties in the Vancouver area.