About the Heersink Gift
The largest philanthropic gift in university history led to the naming of the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine and established the Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation and the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health, creating new opportunities to advance research, education, innovation, and global engagement.
Over the years that followed, the gift helped strengthen the school's trajectory as a leading academic medical center by supporting faculty recruitment, scientific discovery, student opportunities, and strategic growth. More than a naming gift, it represented a shared vision to accelerate biomedical innovation and expand the school's impact across Alabama and around the world for generations to come.
Five Years of Impact
92
Global Partners in
46 Countries
12
Endowed Chairs &
Professorships Created
10
Startup Companies
Launched
180+
Learners in Innovation
Graduate Programs
445
Global Health
Participants in 2025
5
New Degree & Certificate
Programs Introduced
Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation
The Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation is driving the future of health care through innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce development. By connecting experts across disciplines, it accelerates new ideas from concept to impact.
Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health
The Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health is addressing some of the world's most pressing health challenges through research, education, and international engagement. Its work strengthens communities, expands opportunity, and improves lives across the globe.
Marnix E. Heersink Conference Center
The Marnix E. Heersink Conference Center is a space that brings people together to learn, collaborate, and exchange ideas. Through conferences, lectures, and special events, it fosters the connections that spark discovery and progress.
Heersink Family Active Learning Center
The Heersink Family Active Learning Center is redefining medical education for the next generation of physicians. Its technology-rich environment encourages teamwork, critical thinking, and hands-on problem solving.
Meet Marnix and Mary Heersink
For Marnix and Mary Heersink, lasting change begins with people. Throughout their lives, they have opened doors for others through their support of education, healthcare, and community initiatives. Marnix is a physician, entrepreneur, and philanthropist whose career has been shaped by turning ideas into action. Mary has long been guided by a commitment to helping others learn, grow, and thrive. Together, they believe that investing in people is one of the most powerful ways to create meaningful impact.
Featured News
$100 million in contributions to transform UAB School of Medicine
In grateful recognition of a transformational $95 million lead gift from longtime University of Alabama at Birmingham supporter Marnix E. Heersink, M.D., the UAB School of Medicine will now be named the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine.
A historic naming gift from an Alabama family will fuel the school’s next era of excellence
The gift’s impact will be felt across the school, accelerating and expanding our patient care, medical training, and research and innovation enterprises, especially in focus areas such as precision medicine and pharmacogenomics, cancer biology, neurosciences, health disparities, and immunology, among others.
UAB Heersink School of Medicine’s Volker Hall opens doors to newly constructed atrium
On July 28, 2025, the newly constructed atrium for UAB Heersink School of Medicine’s Volker Hall opened its doors. After one year of construction, the brand-new space welcomed the incoming class of medical students for their first day of new student orientation.
UAB celebrates opening of Altec/Styslinger Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building
The University of Alabama at Birmingham celebrated the ribbon-cutting and grand opening of the Altec/Styslinger Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building, a transformative facility that will accelerate breakthroughs in precision medicine, genomics, informatics and data sciences.
Marnix Heersink’s Guiding Principles
Explore a collection of conversations with the physician, entrepreneur, and philanthropist behind the transformational gift.