Davis Center Receives $2M from Polish Computer Company

By Ken Gewertz

Gazette Staff

The Davis Center for Russian Studies has received a gift of $2 million from Optimus, a Polish computer company.

Income from the gift will be used to promote studies in the social sciences and history with a significant Polish component. The program will be administered by the Davis Center but governed by a steering committee jointly appointed by the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, the Ukrainian Research Institute, and the Davis Center.

The Optimus Polish Fund will provide support for a variety of initiatives:

* Summer research support and an intern program for three to five Harvard undergraduate and graduate students to study in Poland and for Polish students to attend Harvard Summer School.

* Two annual postdoctoral fellowships.

* A lecture series on Poland as well as the acquisition of library and research materials.

Optimus began eight years ago, the brainchild of Roman Kluska, an unemployed factory manager who began building computers in his attic. Today Optimus supplies 30 percent of the personal computers sold in Poland and has begun filling orders from Ukraine.

According to Marshall Goldman, associate director of the Davis Center, the company has now branched out into the software field and has signed licensing agreements with Microsoft and Lockheed Martin.

"What's significant here is that this is not a state enterprise that's been privatized, but a brand-new start-up company," Goldman said. "Who would have thought that such a short time after Polish independence, a Polish company would be giving money to Harvard?"

Another important consequence of the gift, according to Goldman, is that it has led three of Harvard's regional study centers to enter into a cooperative agreement.

"Such an arrangement is not all that common at the University, and we're very pleased by it," Goldman said.