The Institute for Advanced Study drew dramatically closer to its yearlong fundraising goal with a $25 million gift from billionaire software developer and Institute trustee Charles Simonyi, the Institute announced Friday.
Simonyi, who made his fortune developing Excel and Word for Microsoft, said he wanted to lessen the Institute's reliance on what he characterized as "uncertain" government funding.
"With a total endowment of $400 million, [the Institute] has worked with 21 Nobel Prize winners and practically all Fields Medals winners," Simonyi said. "Very seldom with a modest contribution can you have such a great effect on the advancement of science."
Including Simonyi's gift, the Institute has raised $50 million so far this year, halfway to its goal of $100 million.
Aside from the Institute's founding donation, Simonyi says his $25 million gift — dedicated to his father, Karoly — is the biggest it has ever received. The gift brings the total he has donated to the Institute to about $33 million.
Though the money comes with no strings attached, Simonyi said he thinks it might support some of the Institute's new initiatives, including a plan to expand into systems biology research.
Simonyi said the donation was "necessary to ensure maintenance of high quality running of the institution."
Simonyi said he became involved in the Institute at the urging of some of his Microsoft colleagues in 1996. He currently serves as a trustee of the Institute and as chairman of its Academic Affairs Committee.
In the past, Simonyi's $75 million Fund for Arts and Sciences has given to organizations in his hometown of Seattle, including the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Public Library and Seattle University's performance and visual arts center. About $35 million remains in the fund, and Simonyi said he "won't exclude the possibility" of giving more of it to the Institute.
Even before his Microsoft colleagues introduced him to the Institute, Simonyi held it in high regard for its famous professors, especially mathematician John von Neumann. Simonyi also credits such Institute luminaries as George Kennan '25, Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein with inspiring his support of the Institute.
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