Direct Relief names new headquarters facility after UCSB professor

Direct Relief announced that it has named its new headquarters office in honor of a UC Santa Barbara physics professor on Thursday.

According to Direct Relief, Dr. Virgil Elings, donated $5.1 million dollars to help complete funding for their new $40 million-dollar headquarters facility.

As a gesture of gratitude, Direct Relief named the facility after Dr. Elings, who is also a nanotechology engineer as well as a philanthropist, according to the organization.

FedEx also donated $3 million to help fund the construction of the new facility.

According to David J. Bronczek, president and chief operating officer of FedEx Corp., FedEx believes that “the new distribution center is a critical asset for humanitarian response which will enable the secure delivery of medications and other health essentials.”

Direct Relief’s new headquarters facility is almost four times as large as its previous facility, and was built to help meet the heightened federal requirements related to storage and distribution of prescription medications and the increased demand for humanitarian assistance, according to the organization.

Direct Relief provided medical aid to recipients in 100 countries last year, and is the largest charitable medicines program in the U.S.