UC San Diego Announces 2025 Lifetime Legacy and Chancellor’s Medal Awardees
For the first time, UC San Diego’s Chancellor’s Medal honorees are all alumni; longtime San Diego philanthropists Evelyn and Ernest Rady will receive the university’s Lifetime Legacy Award
From supporting the health of our youngest patients, to driving innovative research and education in business, finance and biotechnology, to ensuring library resources for generations to come, UC San Diego’s 2025 Chancellor’s Medal and Lifetime Legacy Award honorees are making a remarkable impact on the world around us. Today, the campus announced the recipients of the campus’s most prestigious awards for its supporters, which will be presented at an event in March 2025.
For the first time ever, this year’s Chancellor’s Medal recipients are all UC San Diego alumni: David Goeddel ’72; Ken Kroner, PhD ’88; and Sally WongAvery ’75. Since its establishment in 2000, the Chancellor’s Medal has been awarded to select community leaders and philanthropists whose long-standing contributions and involvement have supported promising students, furthered meaningful research, and helped the university and region grow and prosper.
UC San Diego also will bestow the Lifetime Legacy Award upon San Diego-based philanthropists and community leaders Evelyn and Ernest Rady. The Lifetime Legacy Award is given only on rare occasions to exceptional campus visionaries.
“It is an honor to be able to recognize these visionary individuals who are dedicated to making a difference in the world through philanthropy,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “This year is unique in that all our Chancellor’s Medal recipients are alumni, and we are so proud of their remarkable accomplishments and grateful for their commitment to UC San Diego. We are also so pleased to be able to honor Evelyn and Ernest Rady for their incredible support which has spanned decades and positively impacted our campus and the community so greatly.”
This year’s Chancellor’s Medal recipients come from a broad range of backgrounds and have supported a wide range of areas at UC San Diego and in the community. They include:
David Goeddel ’72
Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and hands-on learning
David Goeddel
UC San Diego alumnus and legendary pioneer of the biotechnology and molecular biology fields, David Goeddel was the first scientist hired by biotechnology juggernaut Genentech. He played a key role in the development of Genentech’s first five products, including human insulin, growth hormone and tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), and in Genentech’s notable success as one of the earliest—and first publicly traded—biotechnology companies.
Through establishment of the Goeddel Family Technology Sandbox, Goeddel and his wife, Alena, have increased access to instrumentation platforms and experiential learning opportunities for cross-disciplinary problem-solving teams and the next generation of scientists emerging from UC San Diego. The Sandbox is removing barriers to discovery in critical areas, such as charting cures to devastating diseases and disorders, mitigating the impacts of climate change, and enhancing the resilience and productivity of food systems. The family’s generosity is transforming the landscape of science and technology education through the Global Discovery Seed Fund and the Dr. David V. Goeddel Chancellor’s Chair in Biological Sciences. Additionally, the Goeddel Family Athletic Scholarship Endowment provides scholarship funding for undergraduate Triton scholar-athletes.
Goeddel is a committed leader at UC San Diego, where he serves on the School of Biological Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council and as a past member of the UC San Diego Health Board of Advisors. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recipient of many scientific awards including the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry and the Scheele Medal from the Swedish Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Ken Kroner, PhD ’88
Ensuring social good and sustainable futures with leading-edge financial research
Ken Kroner, PhD
UC San Diego alumnus Ken Kroner is a renowned global finance innovator. He served as a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee, where he was responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars of active investment portfolios. Prior to that, he was an economics and finance professor at the University of Arizona.
His tireless, visionary leadership has helped to transform the key role of alumni and volunteer campus champions in shaping UC San Diego’s future. As co-chair of the unprecedented Campaign for UC San Diego, Kroner propelled the campus’ success in exceeding its most ambitious fundraising goals, generating and sustaining momentum necessary to surpass the $3 billion mark and become the youngest university in the nation ever to exceed a multi-billion-dollar milestone in a single campaign.
Kroner also established the groundbreaking Kroner Center for Financial Research at Rady School of Management and the School of Social Sciences, which focuses on social good by bringing the power of academia to real-world investment issues faced by asset owners (pension funds, retirees, foundations and sovereign wealth funds) globally. Through the Kroner Family Foundation, Kroner and his wife, Jennifer, have contributed to endowed chairs and student scholarships and fellowships on campus, founding the Kroner Family Endowed Fellowship in Social Sciences to support stellar graduate students in pursuing research interests at UC San Diego.
Kroner was elected to the UC San Diego Foundation Board of Trustees in 2009—serving as chair and accelerating the impact of the Investment/Finance Committee between 2012 and 2015. He also served as a member of the Rady School Fellowship Task Force. He is currently vice chair and acting chair of Alberta Investment Management Corporation Board of Directors.
Sally WongAvery ’75
Empowering scholars’ lifelong love of learning through novel library resources
Sally WongAvery
For more than three decades, UC San Diego alumna, attorney, educator and philanthropist Sally WongAvery has been committed to building community and expanding education. Her transformational gift to UC San Diego created the Natasha Wong Endowment for East Asian Collections, the Sally T. WongAvery Fund for East Asian Collections and the WongAvery East Asian Collections Collaboration to sustain and bolster the body of East Asian works at UC San Diego. This remarkable contribution was recognized with the naming of the Sally T. WongAvery Library, a testament to her deep commitment to supporting libraries and lifelong learning.
WongAvery is also a committed leader at UC San Diego and across the region. She serves on the UC San Diego Foundation Board of Trustees and is an active leader of the Chinese community in San Diego, serving as the first female elected president of the Chinese Benevolent organizations, president of the Chinese School of San Diego, and co-founder of both the San Diego Chinese Historical Society and the Chinese Bilingual Preschool. WongAvery embodies UC San Diego’s commitment to fostering a culture of inclusivity and empowerment through her activism to assist newly arriving Chinese immigrants to our region and their paths to U.S. citizenship. She has served as an interpreter and translator for Chinese immigrants in the court system and as an instructor of food safety with the County of San Diego’s Public Health Services department.
WongAvery is a recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Award by the Southern California Council of Chinese Schools, the Susan B. Anthony Leadership Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. She was inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame for her role as a culturally competent bridge builder. She also supported the establishment of the WongAvery Music Gallery at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, and contributes to the WongAvery Asia-Pacific Peace Museum in Toronto, which promotes understanding of East Asian history.
UC San Diego will also present the prestigious Lifetime Legacy Award to:
Evelyn and Ernest Rady
Spearheading growth in entrepreneurship, health and education across our community
Evelyn and Ernest Rady
Evelyn and Ernest Rady are visionaries whose deep commitment to their community has shaped the San Diego region—and that impact will span long into the future. The couple’s vast philanthropic support has played a key role in driving UC San Diego’s evolution as a world-class public research university. Their support for causes across the campus has led to incredible growth and improved resources for students, entrepreneurs, and women and infants.
The Radys’ example has helped to build a culture of philanthropy at UC San Diego and energize the intellectual, cultural and physical transformation of the campus. Ernest Rady served as honorary chair of the record-breaking Campaign for UC San Diego, which surpassed its initial $2 billion fundraising goal by $1 billion to raise over $3 billion. The Radys’ foundational gift to establish the Rady School of Management—and attendant endowed chairs and fellowships—has fueled the Rady School’s rise amongst the best business schools in California with programs ranking in top tiers nationally. Their support has helped to recruit and retain top-notch faculty, fund strategic initiatives and allowed business students to focus on interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship. Their giving extends to UC San Diego Health, where they showed their dedication to community health with a generous contribution to name the Rady Pavilion for Women and Infants at Jacobs Medical Center, which was built to enhance UC San Diego’s capacity as the regional hub for meeting the unique needs of mothers and infants.
Beyond their robust philanthropy, the Radys are deeply involved at UC San Diego through their longstanding service on boards and committees across campus, including Ernest Rady’s membership on the Rady School Dean’s Advisory Council and the UC San Diego Foundation Board of Trustees. He also serves as chair of the Chancellor’s Real Estate Advisory Council.
Meanwhile, the couple’s generosity across San Diego—including their remarkable support for Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego and The Salvation Army’s Rady Residence for families and Rady Center for Adults for those experiencing homelessness—continues to improve lives through better access to health care, support resources, arts and culture, and educational opportunity.
“Ernest and Evelyn Rady have an incredible legacy of support to UC San Diego,” said Chancellor Khosla. “It is thanks to the Radys’ vision that UC San Diego is home to the Rady School of Management, which is helping drive positive growth in local and global economies. Their compassion and dedication to helping children and infants throughout the region has impacted countless families, including those who have received care in the Rady Pavilion for Women and Infants at Jacobs Medical Center. Our gratitude for the Radys’ sage advice and advocacy over the years cannot be overstated.”
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