W. M. Keck Foundation

The W. M. Keck Foundation is an American charitable foundation supporting scientific, engineering, and medical research in the United States. It was founded in 1954 by William Myron Keck, founder and president of Superior Oil Company (now part of ExxonMobil). The Foundation's net assets exceeded $1.3 billion at the end of 2019.

W. M. Keck Foundation
Founded1954
FounderWilliam Myron Keck
Focussupporting scientific, engineering, and medical research
Location
Area served
United States
Websitewww.wmkeck.org
The Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii projects a laser beam into the night sky to form an artificial guide star for adaptive optics. The galactic plane of the Milky Way is visible in the sky to the right of the image. The stars are trailed in this 3 minute fixed camera exposure due to the rotation of the earth.
Old pumpjack in the W. M. Keck Foundation Gallery, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
The Keck Array at the South Pole observatory, Antarctica.

Overview

From its founding until his death in 1964, the Foundation was led by William Myron Keck. From 1964 to 1995, it was led by W. M. Keck's son, Howard B. Keck. Robert Addison Day, W. M. Keck's grandson has been chairman and president since 1996.

The Foundation provides grants in five broad areas: science and engineering research, undergraduate science and engineering, medical research, liberal arts, in Southern California. Some of the more notable projects that have received funding from the Keck Foundation include:

The Keck Foundation has been a long-time supporter of public television in Southern California, including underwriting the broadcast of Sesame Street on KCET since the 1970s.

Funding

The foundation has a maximum grant of $5 million, though funding is typically $2 million or less.

The W. M. Keck foundation has these requirements for funding:

  • Research that is high impact and that questions or challenges the prevailing paradigm[7]
  • Research projects that no one else is pursuing[7]
  • A new research project that is in its early stages[7]
  • Basic research, not translational or clinical research[7]
  • Research that would result in general information and new methodologies that can be of benefit to the field, even if the project were to go awry[7]
  • Research projects that are not funded by any other foundation, and research projects that could not move along without Keck funding[7]
  • Though this is not a requirement, the W.M. Keck Foundation prefers projects that involve some kind of collaboration over single investigator research[7]

See also

References

  1. "Chapman receives largest Orange County gift from W. M. Keck Foundation". Happenings. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  2. "The Keck Center in Lawrence Hall is a high-tech space for the exploration of language and culture, promoting global perspectives in education". Happenings. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  3. "ABOUT THE GULF COAST CONSORTIA". Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2013. In 2001 the GCC was created with a $3.5M gift from the W. M. Keck Foundation to foster collaborative research and training. [...] The GCC is composed of a training arm, the Keck Center for Quantitative Biomedical Bioscience Training, and a research arm, [...]
  4. "Keck School History". usc.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-22.
  5. "WM Keck Center for 3D Innovation". utep.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-22.
  6. "Pepperdine University Annual Report 2002". www.pepperdine.edu. Archived from the original on 2003-04-19.
  7. "W.M. Keck Foundation Research Program" (PDF). foundations.mit.edu. 20 May 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-06-06. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
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