The W. M. Keck Foundation is an American

charitable foundation A foundation (also a charitable foundation) is a category of nonprofit organization or charitable trust that typically provides funding and support for other charitable organizations through grants, but may also engage directly in charitable act ...

supporting

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

, and

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

research in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It was founded in 1954 by

William Myron Keck William Myron Keck (April 27, 1880 – August 20, 1964) was an American oil entrepreneur and philanthropist. Founder of Superior Oil Company, author Kevin Krajick has described Keck as "the world's greatest oil prospector, a man whose insti ...

, 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.

Overview

From its founding until his death in 1964, the Foundation was led by

. From 1964 to 1995, it was led by W. M. Keck's son,

Howard B. Keck Howard Brighton Keck (September 20, 1913 – December 14, 1996) was an American businessman. He was also a Thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse owner and breeder, and the owner of an auto racing team that twice won the Indianapolis 500. Early ...

Robert Addison Day Robert Addison Day is an American business executive and philanthropist. He was the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Trust Company of the West until 2009. He is the chairman and president of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Ear ...

, 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 Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

science and engineering, medical research,

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

, in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

. Some of the more notable projects that have received funding from the Keck Foundation include: * 2017: The Keck Center for Science and Engineering, at Chapman University, $21 million * The W. M. Keck Center for Language Study at Colgate University * The Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies of Claremont McKenna College (the alma mater of

's grandson, and chairman and president of W. M. Keck Foundation) * The W.M. Keck Science Department of Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer College, and Scripps College. * The W.M. Keck Center for Interdisciplinary Bioscience Training at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

(training arm of the Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC)) * Support for building of the Keck Observatory at

Pacific Lutheran University Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) is a private Lutheran university in Parkland, Washington. It was founded by Norwegian Lutheran immigrants in 1890. PLU is sponsored by the 580 congregations of Region I of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ame ...

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

* 1985, 1991: Construction of the Keck telescopes, W. M. Keck Observatory at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, Keck I, Keck II, about $70 million for each * Keck Institute for Space Studies, established in 2008, a joint institute of the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory * 1999: Expansion of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, $110 million * The W.M. Keck Building Center for fMRI & the W.M. Keck Foundation Center for Ocean-Atmosphere Research at the University of California, San Diego * Creation of the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, California * Sponsor of the Keck Computer Science Lab at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California * The W.M. Keck Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at University of California, Irvine * The WM Keck Center for 3D Innovation at University of Texas at El Paso * The William M. Keck Building at the California Institute of Technology * The Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington D.C. *The Keck Science Center at Pepperdine University * The Keck Array, part of the BICEP and Keck Array, BICEP experiment (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) at the South Pole observatory. * W.M.Keck Earth Science and Metal Engineering Museum at the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, whose renovation the foundation funded, at the University of Nevada, Reno The Keck Foundation has been a long-time supporter of public television in

, 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 * Research projects that no one else is pursuing * A new research project that is in its early stages * ''Basic research'', not translational or clinical research *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 *Research projects that are not funded by any other foundation, and research projects that could not move along without Keck funding *Though this is not a requirement, the W.M. Keck Foundation prefers projects that involve some kind of collaboration over single investigator research

References

External links

*
The Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College

The W.M. Keck Center for Interdisciplinary Bioscience Training
{{Authority control Scientific research foundations in the United States, Keck, W. M., Foundation Organizations established in 1954 Charities based in California

Overview

Funding

See also

References

External links