William H Donner Foundation

After losing his son, Joseph, to cancer in 1929, Mr. Donner turned his formidable energies to the then infant field of cancer research. He established the International Cancer Research Foundation in 1932 to honor his son's memory. This pioneering Foundation made grants to a wide range of institutions, including one grant that established the Donner Radiation Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley to support the innovative work of Dr. John E. Lawrence. The work of this laboratory provided the impetus for what later became the remarkable new field of nuclear medicine. In 1961, The William H. Donner Foundation was incorporated with the endowment originally established by Mr. Donner for the International Cancer Research Foundation.