It was their wish that the donation be used to establish an institute "dedicated to the encouragement of creative thought and conduct of pure science".

Fellowships are intended for exceptional young scientists newly awarded the doctoral degree and are selected on the basis of their academic achievement and the promise of their scientific research.

The institute seeks to discover and encourage individuals of outstanding talent, and to provide them with the opportunity to pursue their research on the Berkeley campus.

[1] In 1985, Miller Fellow Steven A. Wasserman, his Berkeley faculty host, Nick Cozzarelli, and colleagues published a paper in science entitled, "Discovery of a Predicted DNA Knot Substantiates a Model for Site-Specific Recombination".

He mentioned that in his private art collection he had a 3rd-century A.D. Roman bas relief which showed the identical knot form described in the paper.