Foundation News
For information on the economic situation of foundations, see chart from the Foundation Center:
In Their Own Words: 2009 Foundation Giving Forecast

(For 2008 Grants, please see "News from Foundation Relations"

2007 ~ 2006 ~ 2005 ~ 2004

• $500K from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to support the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research's project to evaluate policies relevant to U.S. climate policy design, cost-containment policy options, and the interplay between federal, state, and regional climate programs.


• $25K from the Bruins Foundation and $150K from the Charles Hayden Foundation to support the STEM program for Boston and Cambridge middle school students.


• $200K from the Picower Foundation to support the Norman B. Leventhal Fellowships for neuroscience graduate students in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory (see picture below).


• The Center for Future Civic Media has received a four-year, $5M grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to study how different forms of media can foster civic engagement and reinforce geographic communities. The grant, a joint venture between the Media Lab and the Program in Comparative Media Studies, was the top award winner among more than 1,600 applications received in this recent worldwide competition.


• $1.6M from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to the Jameel Poverty Action Lab for a study to measure the effectiveness of school-based strategies to prevent HIV/AIDS among rural youth in Kenya.


• $500K from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in support of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program.


• $100K from the Edwin S. Webster Foundation to the Department of Chemistry in support of the URIECA curriculum.


• The new $3.5M W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory at MIT has been inaugurated with $1.63M in funding from the Keck Foundation. The program enables a major new push by MIT theorists in the international race to determine the ultimate capabilities of quantum information systems.


• $20K from the Boston Scientific Foundation to the MIT SEED Academy.
  
  

2006

• STEM program for middle schoolers receives $25,000 grant from Boston Bruins Foundation.


• $348K from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to the Jameel Poverty Action Lab for research work in India.


• $600K over two years from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to the Security Studies Program for general support.


• The Martin Foundation, Inc., established by Lee '42 and Geraldine Martin, founding donors of the Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability at MIT, has provided new support for undergraduate sustainability research with a grant of $250K. This grant to the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE), will also provide LFEE with support to continue its program to facilitate interaction among all environmental graduate Fellows at MIT.
  

• The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation awarded Dr. Alice Y. Ting a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award of $75,000.


• $750,000 over three years from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in support of the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project's research on ways to improve both the process and the means by which Americans vote.


• $300,000 from the Annie E. Casey Foundation in support of the Boston Community Learning Project operated by the Center for Reflective Community Practice.


• The Amelia Peabody Foundation awarded $25,000 to the MIT Saturday Engineering Enrichment and Discovery (SEED) Academy. SEED Academy is an academic enrichment and career exploration program held at MIT and offered free of charge to traditionally underserved public high school students from Boston, Cambridge and Lawrence, Massachusetts.


• $350,000 over two years from the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation to expand the Rippel Transgenic Facility at MIT to include preclinical in vivo testing and whole animal imaging capabilities.


• The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded the following grants in 2006:

  $1.2 million over three years to support scientific and technical research in the international security field by the Science, Technology, and Global Security Working Group, led by Professor Theodore Postel, Professor of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy.

  $165,000 and $120,000 (two grants) in support of the work of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab in examining rural poverty in India.

  $1,800,000 over three years to the Program in Comparative Media Studies for research on new media "literacy" among K-12 students.



• The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced two significant gifts to MIT in the spring of 2006; the Department of Biology, under the leadership of Professor Graham Walker, received an award of $1.8M through HHMI's Undergraduate Science Education Program. This grant will enhance MIT's continuing efforts in undergraduate education in the biological sciences, with support for student research and faculty development initiatives.

  Catherine L. Drennan, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. The $1 million award honors top research scientists who are also great teachers (Link to article)

  

2005

• MIT, Kuwait Foundation announce partnership to advance management of water, energy resources
  The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences and MIT today announced the creation of a research-and-education center devoted to progress on key environmental, hydrologic and energy resource goals. The foundation will fund the center at the level of $11 million over 10 years.


• Carnegie Corporation grants $800K to MIT's iLab project.
  Funded by an $800,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, students at three African universities will be able to access five MIT labs via the Internet, thanks to an iLab Project partnership between MIT's Center for Educational Computing Initiatives (CECI), Makerere University (Uganda), the University of Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), and Obafemi Awolowo University (Nigeria). See also Current Research Projects at Professor del Alamo's website at www-mtl.mit.edu/~alamo/.


• MIT-Italy Program gets $1.2M Grant.
  The MIT-Italy Program, which provides comprehensive cultural and language preparation for student interns who work in Italian settings and then return to MIT to lead formal workshops, recently received a five-year, $1.2M grant from an Italian foundation to support a variety of activities, including research grants for selected MIT students to study at the Milan Politecnico.



• Hilton Foundation awards $150,000 to Professor Susan Murcott.
  In February 2005, Professor Susan Murcott of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received a grant of $150,000 from the Hilton Foundation. This award will support her research on treatment and safe storage of household drinking water in West Africa.


• Michael M. J. Fischer, MIT, named Carnegie Scholar


• The Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) project received a grant of $298K from the Davis Educational Foundation to develop and disseminate visualization tools for use by New England universities

2004

• Kavli $7.5M Gift Brightens Study of Dark Energy


• The Voting Technology Project is using existing grant funds from Carnegie to underwrite today's conference on voting systems in the US.


• Raytheon donates $25K to second MIT Soldier Design Competition


• $11M Moore Foundation Gift Buoys Study of Marine Microbes at MIT


• $362,414 grant from the Charles Hayden Foundation over three years to support the Science, Technology, Energy and Math STEM program to middle school students in Boston.


• $285K grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for the Clare Boothe Luce Post-doctoral Fellowships Program for Women in EECS


• $440K grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for the Field Research Component for the Terrascope Progra


• MIT Assistant Professor Christopher Capozzola Named Carnegie Scholar for 2004 (from Carnegie Corporation of New York


• Millipore Foundation awards $5K to MIT Public Service Center's KEYs program


• Carnegie Corporation awards $50K to MIT for Feasibility Study of Use of iLabs in Select African Universities


• The Fred J. Brotherton Charitable Foundation awards $25K to MIT SEED (Saturday Engineering Enrichment and Discovery) Academy.


• The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Awards $500K to MIT for Renovation of Dreyfus Chemistry Lobby