Winton boss Harding gives £20m to green energy lab
HEDGE FUND star David Harding has donated £20m to Cambridge University to create a green energy research centre.
Harding, reported to be the City’s highest earner, plans to give the money to his old university’s Cavendish Laboratory to fund investigation into energy-saving materials and energy storage.
The university said yesterday the donation is the largest ever received in its 136-year history. The Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability will be launched next year.
Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, vice chancellor at Cambridge, said: “The University is most grateful to David for this donation, which is truly exceptional both in its generosity and in its vision of translating fundamental discoveries in physics, to meet one of the most pressing needs of our generation.”
Harding made his fortune as the co- founder of AHL and Winton Capital Management, and received a dividend payment of £54m last year.
The Cavendish has produced a number of Nobel prizewinners, including physicist Ernest Rutherford and Francis Crick and James Watson, who discovered the DNA double helix.