Billionaire founder of Farallon Capital Management LLC Thomas Steyer and his wife, Kathryn Taylor, recently made a generous $25 million donation to Yale University to help open the school’s Energy Sciences Institute.

The new institute will hire new faculty members to conduct research on renewable fuel sources in a 40,000-square foot laboratory space at Yale’s West Campus.

“This new institute will draw on the scientific resources of the university to find new and better ways to convert the sun’s energy into fuel,” Yale President Richard Levin said in a statement. “Yale needs to be making a contribution in this area, and this gift will assure an intensified effort.”

Steyer graduated from Yale in 1979 and went on to found the San Francisco-based Farallon investment company in 1986. In addition to his role in Farallon, he is also a managing director for San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC and his wife serves on the board of One PacificCoast Bank, a community bank she co-founded with her husband.

The couple is well recognized for their philanthropic and environmental efforts. Last year, they donated $7 million to Stanford University to create the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and Steyer was asked to speak at this year’s American Renewable Energy Day (AREDAY) in Aspen.

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