Northwestern trustees Louis Simpson (Weinberg ‘58) and Kimberly Querrey donated an additional $10 million to establish the Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics.

The institute will house the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics, established in 2016 with support from Simpson and Querrey. The gift will go toward the development of body-integrated electronic systems and enhancing research collaboration at the institute, according to a University news release.

The gift follows the grand opening of the Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center on the Chicago campus in June. Through interdisciplinary collaborations between faculty from McCormick and Feinberg, the center has developed a number of electronic systems that integrate into the body for functions, ranging from continuous, clinical-grade measurements of physiological health to engineered therapies for neuroregeneration, the release stated.

John Rogers, the institute’s founding director, said the investment will accelerate the institute’s work towards “systems with the potential for far-reaching, beneficial impact on human health.”

“We are profoundly moved by the confidence that Kimberly and Lou have shown in our ability to do important, collaborative research at the interface between engineering and medicine, and we appreciate their visionary support,” Rogers said in the release.

Rogers currently leads an interdisciplinary team of Northwestern faculty that developed soft and flexible body sensors to replace the tangle of wire-based sensors that currently monitor premature babies in hospitals’ neonatal intensive care units.

After 13 consecutive years of giving, Simpson and Querrey’s contributions through “We Will. The Campaign for Northwestern” now totals at $208.4 million.

“Kimberly and Lou are deeply committed to addressing important human health issues through cutting-edge research,” University President Morton Schapiro said in the release. “Their latest gift will enable us to draw on Northwestern’s strengths in engineering and medicine in order to explore technologies that improve health outcomes and reduce the cost of health care.”

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