$3m donation to bolster innovation at Wits

Bequest from US-based entrepreneur and alumni David Fine will fund new chair

Boston-based innovator and entrepreneur David Fine has donated US$3 million (about R50m) to South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand to advance innovation.

Fine (pictured), a South African, graduated from Wits with an honours degree in chemistry in 1964. He read for a PhD from Leeds University in the United Kingdom, before leaving for the United States to run the Combustion Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.