Dr Robert C and Veronica Atkins Foundation

About Dr Robert C and Veronica Atkins Foundation

A defining feature of the Dr Robert C and Veronica Atkins Foundation is its repeated support for academic medicine, especially endowed faculty roles and specialty clinical programs. The foundation has made multiple $100,000 grants to universities and medical centers for obesity and diabetes research, metabolism and nutrition, metabolic disease curricula, and ophthalmology-related work. Its giving also reaches patient-care settings, including support for breast center services and hospital projects. Among the clearest signals in the recent grants are $175,000 awards to Columbia University in both 2024 and 2025 for ophthalmology programs. In the same period, the foundation backed the Margaret W. Niedland Breast Center through Jupiter Medical Center Foundation with $125,000 for general support toward the center’s needs. Elsewhere in the portfolio, the foundation funded endowed chairs and professorships at institutions such as Tufts University, USC Keck School of Medicine, the University of California Berkeley, and the University of Michigan, showing a preference for named academic positions as a way to support medical research and training. The overall pattern is grantmaking to established institutions rather than individuals.

What Dr Robert C and Veronica Atkins Foundation Funds

The foundation’s medical giving clusters around obesity, diabetes, and metabolism. It gave $100,000 to USC Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California for an endowed chair in childhood obesity and diabetes, and the same amount to Southwestern Medical Foundation for an endowed chair in obesity and diabetes research. At the University of California Berkeley, it supported an endowed chair in metabolic nutrition with $100,000 grants in both 2023 and 2025. It also funds curricular and faculty infrastructure in metabolic medicine. Weill Medical College of Cornell University received $100,000 grants in 2023 and 2025 to endow a curriculum in metabolic diseases, while Tufts University’s HNRCA received $100,000 grants for a professorship in metabolism and nutrition. A separate strand supports ophthalmology. Columbia University received $100,000 in 2023 for a retina imaging laboratory and $100,000 in 2024 for professorship support, in addition to the larger ophthalmology-program awards.

How Dr Robert C and Veronica Atkins Foundation Gives