NEW YORK, May 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association of Marshall Scholars, together with the family of pioneering sound engineer Ray Dolby, announce the "Ray Dolby - Marshall Scholarship Fund," an endowment to support Marshall Scholars who will be completing their third year of doctoral research in the United Kingdom. Ray Dolby studied physics at Cambridge University under the British government's flagship Marshall Scholarship as part of the class of 1957. Recognizing the Scholarship's role in bringing Dolby to the UK at an early stage of his research - work which subsequently transformed the nature of recorded sound across the globe - the Dolby family has given $3.6m (~£2.8m) to establish an endowment bringing comparable advanced research opportunities to future generations of Americans.
The Ray Dolby - Marshall Scholarship endowment comes as Cambridge University opens the Ray Dolby Centre, supported by £85m from the Dolby estate and serving as the new center piece of the Cavendish Laboratory (Department of Physics). This national facility for physics will "support a diverse array of physics research and nurture the next generations of engineers, physicists and inventors," according to Professor Mete Atatüre, Head of the Cavendish Laboratory, "expanding the UK's science capabilities - in areas such as quantum technologies which are set to create new advanced industries and products." The Dolby family has given more than £150m in philanthropic support to Cambridge University to revitalise and develop the Cavendish Laboratory and to support a new fund for teaching and research, the Dolby Family Fund for Excellence in Physics.
Ray Dolby OBE (1933-2013) was an inventor, audio pioneer, and founder of Dolby Laboratories, who transformed the sound of entertainment. Dolby's technical innovations in noise reduction and "surround sound," among other inventions, helped open new creative possibilities for cinematic and broadcast audio around the world.Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, A Clockwork Orange, and A Star is Born are among the earliest of the 37,000+ films that have been created using Dolby technologies. With nearly 10,000 issued patents, the company and Ray Dolby have been recognized for their path-breaking contributions to the motion picture industry with many Academy Awards, Emmys, Grammys, and Oscars.
Studying for a doctorate at the Cavendish Lab, Cambridge University, was pivotal for Dolby's career. Ray Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories in London in 1965 - bringing to it, according to his wife, Dagmar Dolby "the spirit of novel research and innovation which he had seen in Cambridge." The company took advantage of London being the world's hub for musical recordings in the 60's, working with Decca, the BBC, and many others, and eventually growing from a handful of employees to over 2,000 with 47 offices in 20 countries.
Lord Chris Smith, previous Master of Pembroke College, reflects: "Ray Dolby came to Pembroke as a Marshall Scholar to do a PhD in x-ray microscopy; he went on to invent the sound system that revolutionized listening for the world. In subsequent years, he has had a major impact on Cambridge [University], supporting both Pembroke and the Cavendish Laboratory in a myriad of different ways. His commitment to the enhancement of Cambridge's facilities and the educational opportunities of our students has been second to none."
As the first cohort of Ray Dolby - Marshall Scholars begins their research in the fall, Dagmar Dolby, Ray's widow, remembers: "Going to England opened Ray's eyes to the world and the exceptional creativity of the work being done at the Cavendish. It was there that he was inspired to tackle long-standing and difficult problems. Ray always acknowledged the critical role his time spent as a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge was to his development as a scientist."
The endowment provided by Dolby's estate augments the British Government funded two-year Marshall Scholarship, deepening and expanding research opportunities for young American leaders studying in the United Kingdom.
The philanthropic giving of Ray Dolby and his family, along with other scholars, over the past decade to their shared alma mater - Cambridge University - is 33 million pounds more than the entire cost of the Marshall Scholarship program in its 70 years of existence (adjusted for inflation) to the British Government.
The Association of Marshall Scholars, made up of over 2,000 recipients of the Marshall Scholarship, builds upon the legacy of the Marshall Plan and the Marshall Scholarship, helping to expand the bounds of human knowledge and deepen ties between the United States and the United Kingdom and their shared democratic values.
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