EDITORIAL

Vol.4 No.1 January 2008 www.nature.com/naturephysics

The philanthropic principle

The Kavli Foundation will award its first prizes in 2008, as two new Kavli Institutes set about making their mark in .

To meet Fred Kavli is to meet a true For Fred Kavli, opportunities and philanthropist; modest but generous, chances are the centre of his attention. honourable but approachable, an idealist His genuine confidence in human with a clear vision of what he wants. And beings is impressive. The Kavli Institutes he’s not one to waste time. Fred Kavli are intended to be a platform for the was the founder and sole shareholder of development of “peer pressure though Kavlico — one of the largest suppliers of networking”, as David Auston, president sensors for aeronautics, automotive and of the Kavli Foundation, puts it. The industrial applications — a business that Kavli Institutes currently number 15, he sold for several hundred million US the latest addition being the Kavli dollars in 2000, just before the economic Institute for Systems at the downturn caused by the burst of the Norwegian University of Science and ‘dot-com bubble’. In December that year, Technology in (the institution he established the Kavli Foundation, where Kavli received his physics degree to take up the cause of “supporting in 1955 before emigrating via Canada to science for the benefit of humanity”. the USA). Eventually, the network should More specifically, the Kavli Foundation comprise some 20 members. supports the three branches of science And now the Foundation is focusing in which Kavli himself thinks that on a new endeavour: the Kavli Prizes. the most exciting and wide-reaching A twenty-first-century Nobel Prize, discoveries will be made in the twenty- if you will. Three Kavli Prizes — in first century: astrophysics, nanoscience those favoured areas of astrophysics, and neuroscience. These are areas in nanoscience and neuroscience — will be need of long-term investment, not only GETTY awarded every two years, in cooperation short-term funds, and that is what Kavli with the Norwegian Academy of Science wants to offer. and Letters and the Norwegian Ministry Kavli has endowed individual The lights are green for Kavli’s of Education and Research. Each professorships in the past, but with the Chinese adventure, and now, beyond the prize comes with a scroll, a medal and Foundation he has begun to build up a openings and the ceremonies, it needs US$1 million. Unlike the Nobel, younger network of institutes. He started with the to be seen that a long-lasting difference scientists are deliberately the focus; the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at can be made. At the opening events last is intended to target those UC Santa Barbara, followed by institutes May — and especially during the two- whose careers are still unfolding. The throughout the USA, as well as in Delft day ‘International Conference on the call for nominations ended in December in the and in Cambridge in Frontiers of Science’ at KITP China — the 2007 and the winners will be announced the UK. But, if science is to be supported tremendous momentum that there is in on 4 June 2008, with the award for the benefit of humanity, he reasons, China’s physics community was tangible. ceremony to take place in September, the most populous country on Earth But to succeed in a global network, in . cannot be left out: the Kavli Institute strong local support is needed as much as According to Fred Kavli, his for Theoretical Physics China, at the integration, and the younger generations undertaking to support science and Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, of Chinese physicists, in particular, must scientists is still very much in its was launched in a ceremony in the Great rise to the challenge. Cultural differences developing stages. However, what has Hall of the People in May 2007, the day will always exist, and must be recognized been achieved in only a few years is after the ceremonial groundbreaking for with sensitivity on both sides, but such remarkable, and, with the support and the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and differences can be seen in the context of cooperation of the world’s physicists, Astrophysics at . opportunity, rather than as a barrier. 2008 promises more. nature physics | VOL 4 | JANUARY 2008 | www.nature.com/naturephysics  © 2008 Nature Publishing Group