Since 1977, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation has been a major force in science philanthropy. In its earliest years, the Beckman Foundation established a number of centers and institutes at colleges, including the Beckman Institutes at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and California Institute of Technology. In 1990, Dr. Beckman decided that the foundation should exist in perpetuity, and that it would be devoted to support young researchers to pursue innovative and high-risk research projects. To this day, the Beckman Foundation is dedicated to young scientists, directing its philanthropic work through national programs directed at science education and research in higher education and local grants funding educational initiatives in and around Orange County, California. Since its inception in 1978, the Beckman Foundation has exceeded $830 million in grants supporting scientific research through these various programs.

Dr. Anne Hultgren has served as CEO of the Beckman Foundation since 2015, leading the organization through a period of many changes at the foundation and in the world. Through its Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiative, the Beckman Foundation is devoted to broadening its outreach to schools and institutions that have not previously applied for funding or have not been selected even as it remains devoted to its founding principle of supporting early-career faculty who, as Arnold Beckman put it, “don’t yet have the clout to receive the large Federal grants.” Join Dr. Hultgren for an important discussion of the role of science philanthropy in advancing careers and in advancing discoveries.