Rice University has received a $25 million gift from alumnus Robert Klein to name a new School of Social Sciences building. The Rice Board of Trustees approved the proposal at its March 22 meeting.

The Robert A. Klein Hall for Social Sciences will house the majority of the school’s current academic departments, institutes and centers. It will be built on campus near the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and Jesse H. Jones School of Graduate Business.

Klein has a Master of Arts (1975) and a doctorate, summa cum laude (1976), both in economics, from Rice. He also has a Bachelor of Science degree with highest honors in chemical engineering (1969) from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.

He is currently a director of the renewable energy firm Riverbank Power, which develops, constructs and operates hydropower facilities in North and South America. The company’s run-of-river and pumped storage hydropower projects represent the world’s largest hydropower development pipeline.

Planning for the new building’s design is in progress, and dates for construction will be determined in the near future.