Institute for Advanced Study Receives $25 Million
The Institute for Advanced Study today announced that it has received $25 million from the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences. The unrestricted cash gift is the largest donation since the founding of the Institute, and will be named The Karoly Simonyi Memorial Endowment Fund, honoring Charles Simonyi's late father.
Charles Simonyi, a Trustee of the Institute since 1997 and President of the Corporation since 2003, established the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences in 2003. Dr. Simonyi is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Intentional Software Corporation in Bellevue, Washington, a company he founded in 2002. In addition to the Institute, the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences has donated to the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Public Library, Seattle's Museum of Flight, Russian National Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast. Its goal is to help provide "Access to Excellence."
Peter Goddard, Director of the Institute, states, "We are immensely grateful to the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences for this gift to the Institute, which constitutes a landmark in the Institute's history. Charles is a remarkably enlightened person, deeply committed to the Institute and its objectives. This extraordinarily generous donation will play an essential part in ensuring that the Institute is able to remain committed to its mission of advancing research in the most fundamental aspects of the sciences and humanities through the work of its outstanding Faculty and the distinguished scholars who come to the Institute each year."
"I believe that the Institute performs a crucial role in nurturing and promoting original thinking and scholarship," states Charles Simonyi. "It is an honor for me to be so closely engaged with the Institute, its Faculty, and its Members, who come from around the world to pursue their influential research. The Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences considers this gift to the Institute important for fostering the future practical advancements that will result from intellectual inquiry, and it is thrilling to be part of such a worthy endeavor."
The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences $25 million gift brings the total gifts and pledges to the Institute this year to more than $50 million. This figure includes additional, significant gifts received from supporters of the Institute, and it represents half of an initial goal of $100 million established by the Institute to strengthen its endowment and to fund existing programs. These gifts continue the strong legacy of support established by the Institute's founders, Louis Bamberger and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld. The sequence of Bamberger/Fuld gifts, made between 1930 and their deaths in 1944, amounted to more than $16 million and created the foundation for the Institute's endowment.
Dr. Simonyi has been actively involved with the Institute since 1996. He endowed the Charles Simonyi Professorship in Theoretical Physics, currently held by physicist Edward Witten of the Institute's School of Natural Sciences. Dr. Simonyi also donated $5 million to the Institute's School of Mathematics to assist it in providing the financial independence to select the very best Members, many from abroad. Simonyi Hall, the building that houses the School of Mathematics, was dedicated in May 2000 in recognition of Dr. Simonyi's participation in the life of the Institute community and his commitment to the work that takes place here. Since 2001, he has served as Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee.
About the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities—the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of approximately 30, and it ensures the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.
The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Thirty-three Nobel Laureates and 40 out of 56 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.