Red Wing native donates $20 million to Mayo Clinic for use of AI in early cancer detection

ROCHESTER — Mayo Clinic has received a $20 million gift from Red Wing native Dwight Diercks and his wife, Dian, to promote the use of artificial intelligence for early detection and intervention of cancer.

The announcement, made Thursday, said the funds will also be used to support the Mayo Clinic Platform, the technology project at the forefront of Mayo’s plans to reshape the future of health care. The platform involves using troves of de-identified patient data to develop cutting-edge diagnostics and treatments.

In recognition of their gift, Mayo will establish the Dwight and Dian Diercks President, Mayo Clinic Platform, and create the Heidi Diercks Krause Fund in AI Innovation for Cancer, named in honor of Mr. Diercks’ late sister who received treatment at Mayo. The AI work will include developing advanced generative AI to better understand an individual’s risk of getting cancer, allowing clinicians to intervene even before cancer can be diagnosed, Mayo said.

“We can’t afford to wait years or decades for new AI breakthroughs in healthcare. People need new therapies and cures now,” Dwight Diercks said in a statement. “Dian and I truly believe that Mayo Clinic Platform and AI innovation will be the keys to better predicting diseases like cancer, so physicians can intervene sooner with more effective treatments that save, extend or improve the quality of patient lives.”

Dwight Diercks is the son of a mailman who grew up working on his family’s pig farm less than 50 miles from Mayo’s Rochester campus. He joined chipmaker NVIDIA in 1994 as the company’s 22nd employee and today serves as its senior vice president. NVIDIA, which makes chips that have become key components for powering artificial intelligence, surpassed Microsoft earlier this month as the world’s most valuable company, with a $3.3 trillion market capitalization.

The contribution to Mayo follows a $34 million gift the Diercks made to the Milwaukee School of Engineering in 2017. The gift to MSOE, Dwight’s alma mater, supported the construction of a new academic facility focused on AI and computational science education.