The University of California, San Diego announced March 3 that it has accepted a gift from pollster, academic and social researcher Daniel Yankelovich.
Interest from the endowment, billed only as a multimillion-dollar gift, will fund the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research and further the center’s research on topics such as upward mobility. The center will also provide seed funding for projects by UC San Diego researchers that show promise of significant national impact.
Yankelovich, a resident of Del Mar, is known in certain circles as the “dean of American pollsters.” He is perhaps best known for starting the New York Times/Yankelovich poll, since renamed the New York Times/CBS News poll.
Yankelovich, 91, got involved with UC San Diego’s social sciences division about six years ago. He made a $100,000 start-up gift to the center in the fall.
“We are honored to have Daniel Yankelovich as a friend and advisor to our campus,” said university Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “With his generous bequest — one of the largest gifts made to the Division of Social Sciences — and his expertise, I am confident that our research focus on social mobility and other social sciences research will have a national impact.”
