taubman institute


Beginning this week, the massive art collection of billionaire Michigan businessman Alfred Taubman goes up for auction.

Alfred Taubman died in April. He was 91.

Taubman’s art collection, which spans centuries and styles, reflects the man who collected it over many decades.

“He was a renaissance man,” says Alexander Rotter, the head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s. “And he just collected what he thought was great … what he liked.”

The University of Michigan

Billionaire A. Alfred Taubman died Friday at home from a heart attack, according to the Associated Press. He was 91.

He led “an epic American life,” growing up a poor Jewish kid in Detroit, and going on to make a massive fortune by creating the modern shopping mall.

He also survived a major scandal in his later years, when he went to prison for price-fixing.

What’s more, Alfred Taubman was the second-largest donor ever to the University of Michigan.

Johns Hopkins University publicity photo

The University of Michigan Taubman Institute is rewarding doctors who turn lab discoveries into medical treatments.

The first winner may have found a cure for aneurysms in people with Marfan Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. That could, in turn, unlock treatments for more common diseases. 

Dr. Hal Dietz  of Johns Hopkins University used to work with kids with Marfan Syndrome and other inherited diseases that damage blood vessels. But he got so frustrated with how poor the available medications were, he set out to find better ones himself.