Kavli Foundation (United States)

Not to be confused with Kavli Trust, owner of Norwegian food producer Kavli.

The Kavli Foundation, based in Oxnard, California, is a foundation that supports the advancement of science and the increase of public understanding and support for scientists and their work.

The Kavli Foundation was established in December 2000 by its founder and benefactor, Fred Kavli, a Norwegian business leader and philanthropist whose foundation is currently actively involved in establishing research institutes at universities throughout the United States, in Europe, and in Asia.

To date, The Kavli Foundation has made grants to establish Kavli Institutes on the campuses of 16 major universities. In addition to the Kavli Institutes, six Kavli professorships have been established: two at University of California, Santa Barbara, one each at University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Irvine, Columbia University, and California Institute of Technology.

The Kavli Prize

The Kavli Prizes recognize scientists for seminal advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. Consisting of a scroll, medal and cash award of one million dollars, a prize in each of these areas is to be awarded every two years beginning in 2008. The Kavli Prizes are presented in cooperation with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway is Kavli's native country).

The recipients are to be chosen by three prize committees of distinguished scientists recommended by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck Society, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. After making their selection for award recipients, the recommendations of these prize committees are to be confirmed by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

The Kavli Institutes

Astrophysics

• The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University
• The Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago [1]
• The Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [2]
• The Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University [3]
• The Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambridge
• The Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo

Nanoscience

• The Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science
• The Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands
• The Kavli Nanoscience Institute at the California Institute of Technology [4]
• The Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard University [5]

Neuroscience

• The Kavli Institute for Brain Science at Columbia University [6]
• The Kavli Institute for Brain & Mind at the University of California, San Diego [7]
• The Kavli Institute for Neuroscience at Yale University [8]
• The Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• The Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute at Johns Hopkins University
• The Kavli Neural Systems Institute at The Rockefeller University
• The Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience at UC, San Francisco

Theoretical physics

• Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara
• The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics China at the Chinese Academy of Sciences [9]

References and external links

• The Kavli Foundation Website

Additional articles

• $1m prizes to complement Nobels, September 10, 2007 BBC News
• The Next Nobel? August 2, 2007 Time Magazine
• Donors Dream Big, August, 2007 Symmetry Magazine
• Kavli Strives to Leave Mark on Science, November 13, 2006 Associated Press
• Scientific American 50: Policy Leader of the Year, November 21, 2005 Scientific American
• He'll Pay for That, June, 2005 Scientific American
• A Philanthropist of Science Seeks to Be Its Next Nobel, April 19, 2005 The New York Times