A $130 million gift from an anonymous donor to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will fund two new centers for biotechnology research and electronic media and performing arts.

This is the 10th largest private gift to an American university, and the largest such donation to the Troy, New York-based university and research center, which has generally been regarded as a regional academic power, the New York Times reports.

Rensselaer officials say they plan to use the gift -- which will fund construction of two buildings to house the biotechnology research and arts programs -- to leverage the institute's background in physical sciences research into international prominence in related fields.

The planned 200,000- to 250,000-square-foot biotechnology and interdisciplinary studies center will focus on applying "engineering and the physical and information sciences to the life sciences."

The 130,000- to 200,000-square-foot electronic media and performing arts facility will feature performances, presentations, and media research and production facilities.

Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson, who took office 18 months ago, said the most difficult part of accepting the gift was keeping the donor's identity a secret. Dr. Jackson would say only that the institute is "extremely grateful to this donor, whose generous heart is committed to supporting broad areas in education, research, sciences, nature, and the arts."

Dr. Jackson, a physicist and the first black and first woman to be appointed chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has made the Rensselaer Plan one of her top priorities. That effort calls for the institute's current $40 million in research grants to grow to at least $100 million in the next five years.

Rensselaer, with 4,500 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students, has a $700 million endowment and is also planning a new capital campaign.

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