By Dylan Sands, KU Endowment
The University of Kansas has always meant “home” to Brian McClendon.
From his early jobs on the local newspaper route or delivering pizzas to campus to graduating from the KU School of Engineering and famously making his childhood home in Lawrence the literal center of the world when he co-created Google Earth, KU is never far from his orbit.
Now he and his wife, Beth Ellyn, have made a $4 million gift to his alma mater to support professorships and a program that helps ensure collegiate preparedness and success for aspiring Jayhawk engineers.
After graduating from KU with his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1986, Brian McClendon spent eight years at Silicon Graphics developing high-end 3D graphics workstations.
In 2001, he co-founded Keyhole, which was later acquired by Google and released as Google Earth. He led Google’s geospatial division for 10 years, through the development of Google Maps, Street View, Google Earth and Google Earth Engine. He then worked at Uber for two years as vice president of mapping, and he is now CTO at Niantic, which is building next-generation mapping technology for robotics and augmented reality glasses.
“My entire career, from Keyhole to Google and now at Niantic, has been built on the foundation of world-class engineering. That foundation was poured at KU,” Brian McClendon said. “Beth Ellyn and I know that the single most important factor in a student’s education is the quality of the faculty and their ability to teach, mentor and inspire.”
Most of their gift will establish the Brian & Beth Ellyn McClendon Professorships at KU Engineering. Brian McClendon cited a booming interest in emerging engineering technology, such as artificial intelligence, as creating an urgent need to find professors on the cutting edge. He wants KU Engineering to remain competitive and recruit such experts so engineering students can learn from the best.
“Technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace,” Brian McClendon said. “The competition for top-tier academic talent, the people who are both defining and teaching the next wave of innovation, is fiercer than ever. For KU Engineering to attract and retain these ‘rock star’ professors, it needs to compete. Endowed professorships are the most powerful tool to do that. This is a strategic investment to ensure KU’s engineering talent pipeline is secure for the future.”
Named endowed professorships are one of the most meaningful gifts that a donor can make. They help carry on the namesake’s legacy and ensure that a tradition of excellence will be carried on for years to come. These professorships are also crucial in KU’s effort to recruit and retain the finest faculty in academia.
“Computer science is such a popular field in engineering now, and Brian has been at the frontline of innovation in this space for decades,” said School of Engineering Dean Mary Rezac. “We expect his name will inspire students and faculty and hopefully encourage others to fund named professorships and strengthen the school.”
The McClendons’ gift also supports KUEST, a program designed to guide students as they transition from high school to college, in part through four weeks of precalculus training grounded with engineering examples and applications.
KUEST also includes faculty mentorship, peer mentorship, acclimation to campus, engagement in undergraduate research, cohort-building and exposure to the wide range of engineering careers. KUEST covers housing and dining costs during the summer program. The McClendons’ gift is a cornerstone of endowed support aimed at expanding the programming and boosting retention of KUEST students as they progress toward their degree.
“Talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. KUEST is a powerful engine for finding and nurturing exceptional talent that might otherwise be overlooked,” Brian McClendon said. “It’s about providing access, and it’s also providing the support system, mentoring and community that ensures these high-achieving students can thrive and succeed in a demanding engineering curriculum. It’s how we find the next generation of leaders.”
The impact of precalculus preparation is tremendous: According to the School of Engineering, only 30% of students who start in pre-calculus (MATH 104) graduate in engineering, and virtually no one who starts in a remedial math course completes an engineering degree. Yet high schools only 30 minutes from KU do not offer pre-calculus-level math, effectively blocking a large fraction of the population from this career. The McClendons’ support will help ensure that students aren’t held back by factors outside their control and can realize their dreams of becoming Jayhawk engineers.
“KUEST Bridge is extremely effective in getting these students acclimated and giving them tools to succeed,” Rezac said. “Putting them in a position of power early on is tremendously impactful.”
In addition to his trailblazing career, Brian McClendon has shown a remarkable commitment to his alma mater. He has funded graduate and undergraduate engineering scholarships, the LEEP2 atrium bears his name, and he has given substantial support to the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) faculty retention fund. He served on advisory boards for the School of Engineering and the EECS department. As a research professor in the EECS department, he hosted open office hours and taught Startup School, a six-week course to help technology founders realize their vision.
“That story about my childhood home being the center point of Google Earth is a fun piece of trivia, but to me, it’s a powerful symbol,” Brian McClendon said. “It’s a reminder that world-changing ideas can, and do, come from a kid in an apartment in Kansas. Giving back to KU and Lawrence is a way to complete the circle. It’s ensuring that the community and university that gave me my start will continue to be a launching pad for future generations of entrepreneurs, builders and leaders.”
This story was originally published here via KU News.
