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2012 Annual Report Alfred P Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 2012 Annual Report alfred p. sloan foundation $ 2012 annual report Contents Mission Statement 2 President’s Letter 3 2012 Grants by Program 11 2012 Financial Review 94 Audited Financial Statements and Schedules 96 Board of Trustees 123 Officers and Staff 124 Index of 2012 Grant Recipients 125 Cover: The 2.5 meter optical Sloan Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, New Mexico is the pri- mary instrument of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In 2012, the Foundation made a five-year, $10 million dollar grant to support the fourth phase of the SDSS, which will focus on measuring the structure and evolutionary history of galaxies and other stellar objects, including the Milky Way. PHOTO REPRINTED COURTESY OF THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY. 1 alfred p. sloan foundation $ 2012 annual report Mission Statement The ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION makes grants primar- ily to support original research and broad-based education related to science, technology, economic performance, and the quality of American life. The Foundation is unique in its focus on science, technology, and economic institutions—and the scholars and prac- titioners who work in these fields—as chief drivers of the nation’s health and prosperity. The Foundation has a deep-rooted belief that carefully reasoned systematic understanding of the forces of nature and society, when applied inventively and wisely, can lead to a bet- ter world for all. The Foundation’s endowment provides the finan- cial resources to support its activities. The investment strategy for the endowment is to invest prudently in a diversified portfolio of assets with the goal of achieving superior returns. In each of our grants programs, we seek proposals for original proj- ects led by outstanding individuals or teams. We are interested in projects that have a high expected return to society and for which funding from the private sector, government, or other foundations is not yet widely available. 2 alfred p. sloan foundation $ 2012 annual report President’s Letter Dr. Paul L. Joskow am pleased to introduce the 2012 Annual Report of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The report contains descriptions of I our grantmaking programs, a list of all grants made by the Foundation in 2012, a financial review and audited financial statements, and the names of the Foundation’s Trustees, officers, and staff. In this review I provide an overview of the Foundation’s grant activity in 2012.1 The review concludes with a few personal reflections on the Foundation’s mission and how we go about pursuing it effectively and efficiently. This year my reflections will focus on the question “why support basic research?” The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s mission is to advance the quality of Ameri- can life through making grants to support research and education in science, technology, and economic performance. We also look for special opportunities to benefit the residents of the New York City metropolitan area, where our staff and their families live, work, and attend school, and to fund select projects that reflect critical national needs. The funds available to the Foundation to support its grantmaking and manage- ment come from our endowment, which was created by gifts from Alfred P. Sloan Jr., and which is managed by the Foundation’s investment team with the support of our Investment Committee. Led by Chief Investment Officer Bill Petersen, our investment team performed well and earned a 10.4% percent rate of return during calendar year 2012. As of December 31, 2012, the value of the Foundation’s endowment stood at approximately $1.73 billion. STEM Research One of the most rewarding aspects of the Sloan Foundation’s grantmaking is its support of new and emerging fields of scientific inquiry. New areas of scientific research are often perceived to be too risky to attract funding from major fed- eral agencies like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health or have difficulty finding a funding “slot” between established pro- grams which have budget lines reserved for them. The Foundation focuses its research grants in emerging areas and community-building infrastructure to support pioneering researchers as they attempt to develop and test new theo- 1 This review is a collective effort that has relied on contributions of many members of the Sloan Foundation’s staff. I want to thank Nate Williams, Anne McKissick, Gail Pesyna, Kathleen Christensen, Danny Goroff, Liz Boylan, Josh Greenberg, Paula Olsiewski, Doron Weber, Joe Noon, and Sonia Epstein for their contributions. 3 alfred p. sloan foundation $ 2012 annual report ries, build new instruments, create new data sets, surface. Grants in this program in 2012 totaled and publish new research in top academic journals. more than $6 million and provided support for In this way the Foundation has played a vital role in a host of initiatives, including funds to support the development of the now-thriving disciplines of the DCO’s international secretariat, funds for the computer science, computational biology, theoreti- development of the necessary technical infrastruc- cal neurobiology, ocean sciences, and behavioral ture to house, organize, and share data collected by economics. In addition, Foundation grants sup- DCO researchers, seed funding for a DCO consor- porting infrastructure and community-building tium on diamond research, and funds for instru- have led to new templates, technologies, and stan- ment development. dards for the collection, organization, and open access of scientific research and data. The Sloan Also in 2012, the Foundation made a major, five- Digital Sky Survey, the Census of Marine Life, and year, ten million dollar commitment to jump-start the Encyclopedia of Life are good examples of the the fourth phase of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Foundation’s grantmaking in this area. (SDSS). Over the past thirteen years, utilizing a unique 2.5 meter optical telescope in New Mexico, The newest entrant in this longstanding Foundation the SDSS has vastly increased the catalog of stellar tradition is the emerging field of indoor microbial objects and has helped transform our understand- ecology. Americans spend about 90% of their time ing of cosmic evolution, galaxy formation, and the indoors2, yet most research and policy has focused structure of the Milky Way. Data collected by the on the outdoor environment. The Foundation’s SDSS is published under open access principles— program supporting research on the indoor micro- every image ever collected has been released to bial environment, led by Program Director Paula the public—making it one of most highly-cited Olsiewski, is supporting research focused on accu- and influential telescopic surveys in the world. rately characterizing the indoor microbial environ- The Foundation has been a proud supporter of the ment and how it is affected by building attributes, SDSS since its inception, and we are proud to sup- human occupancy, the external environment, and port its next phase of operation, which will focus other factors. Initial research results make clear on investigating dark energy, the expansion history that indoor environments are as complex and inter- of the universe, and variations in chemical abun- related as savannahs, swamps, and rainforests, and dances among galaxies. support thriving invisible communities of bacte- ria, fungi, and other microbes that live alongside Responsible scientific research must incorporate humans in the buildings where we work, rest, and an understanding of both the potential benefits play. In 2012, the Foundation committed over $3 and the potential adverse effects of this research on million in grants for research and community- society. Acceptable research practices should mini- building to researchers studying the microbiology mize potential risks in ways that are not excessively of built environments, including a project to study burdensome on scientific inquiry. The Founda- how human occupancy changes the microbial pro- tion’s program in Synthetic Biology, also led by Dr. file in hospitals, an investigation into how neonatal Olsiewski, partners with scientists, ethicists, and care environments influence the development of policymakers to identify and examine the risks and microbes in the intestines of prematurely-born in- rewards of this rapidly advancing field, aiming to fants, and a detailed study of how indoor microbial forge a consensus around a series of best practices communities differ across cultures. and institutional frameworks sensitive to the ethi- cal and physical dangers associated with synthetic Initiated with Sloan funds in 2009, the Deep biology research while allowing and encouraging Carbon Observatory (DCO) is an exciting multi- exciting new discoveries in the field. In 2012, the disciplinary, decade-long, international scientific Foundation committed nearly $1 million in grants research program devoted to revolutionizing our to work in this area, including a grant to provide understanding of the abundance, distribution, support for a National Academy of Sciences forum movement, and properties of carbon under Earth’s on synthetic biology, an initiative to educate and engage religious denominations about the risks and 2 The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality. U.S. EPA/ rewards of synthetic biology research, and a project Office of Air and Radiation. Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (6609J) Cosponsored with the Consumer Product Safety to help implement the best practice recommenda- Commission,
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