Hawai'i resident Pam Omidyar has given $1 million to the University of Hawai'i's Confocal Microscopy Laboratory at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology at Moku o Lo'e, also known as Coconut Island.

The donation will fund the purchase of a new microscope, which will make it possible for researchers at HIMB, in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, to examine physiological activities in living cells under normal and stressed conditions.

Omidyar, co-founder of Omidyar Network and founder of HopeLab and Humanity United, is the spouse of Hawai'i's richest man, eBay founder and chairman Pierre Omidyar.

For years Pam Omidyar has supported the research and development of new technologies in biological science.