as a floating laboratory, the Aquina. That year, the philanthropist William Donner donated a 64-room building in Palm Beach, Florida, with which the institute planned to build the largest marine biophysics laboratory in the world. By the late 1940s, the institute began to lose focus as scientists like John Loofbourow left for other institutions and Sperti's various affiliated business interests, including Sperti-Faraday, faced mounting debts despite nearly $ in funding from the archdiocese. Archbishop McNicholas sought to bring these enterprises back to profitability, but concerns about institute finances were blamed for his fatal heart attack in 1950. His successor, Archbishop Karl Joseph Alter, rejected the mixing of religion and science and sought to separate the archdiocese from scientific pursuits. In 1951, he severed ties with the institute and forced the sale of Sperti-Faraday. By 1962, the archdiocese had recovered 40% of the more than $ in outstanding funds. Sperti later renamed the now-independent entity to the St. Thomas Institute for Advanced Studies. In 1976, it awarded Archbishop Joseph Bernardin an honorary doctorate. It remained independent until the 1980s. As Sperti became ill, investors fought for control of the institute, shutting it down in 1988. Publications The institute published research by its faculty and students in an academic journal, Studies of the Institutum Divi Thomae, from 1935 to 1947, with a hiatus during World War II. The archives of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati maintain a collection of news clippings and other materials related to the institute. Notable people George Sperti cofounder Miriam Michael Stimson chemist noted for work on spectroscopy and DNA References Further reading Educational institutions established in 1935 Educational institutions disestablished in 1988 Universities and colleges in Cincinnati Medical schools in Ohio Christianity and medicine Cancer organizations based in the United States Intelligent design organizations