The Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin unites the Department of Geological Sciences with two research units, the Institute for Geophysics and the Bureau of Economic Geology. The Jackson School is both old and new. It traces its origins to a Department of Geology founded in 1888 but became a separate unit at the level of a college only on September 1, 2005. The school's formation resulted from gifts by the late John A. and Katherine G. Jackson initially valued at $272 million. The school's endowment as of December 31, 2015 is $442.3 million.