Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 2011 Annual Report alfred p. sloan foundation $ 2011 annual report Contents Mission Statement 2 President’s Letter 3 2011 Grants by Program 13 2011 Financial Review 84 Audited Financial Statements and Schedules 86 Board of Trustees 113 Staff 114 Index of 2011 Grant Recipients 115 1 alfred p. sloan foundation $ 2011 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 $ 2011 annual report President’s Letter Dr. Paul L. Joskow am pleased to introduce the 2011 Annual Report of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The report contains descriptions of our I grantmaking programs, a list of all grants made by the Founda- tion in 2011, a financial review and audited financial statements, and the names of the Foundation’s Trustees and staff. My letter pro- vides an overview of the Foundation’s grant activity in 2011—focus- ing on new programs or those gaining momentum, as well as those that were restructured or came to an end—and concludes with some general reflections on grantmaking strategies for a founda- tion of our size and mission.1 The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s mission is to make grants to support research and broad-based education in science, technology, economic performance, and the quality of American life. We also look for special opportunities to support projects that benefit the residents of the New York 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. Our investment team performed well under challenging market conditions and earned a 2.3% percent rate of return during calendar year 2011. As of December 31, 2011, the value of the Founda- tion’s endowment stood at approximately $1.6 billion. Basic 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 science and technology research are often perceived to be too risky to attract fund- ing from major federal agencies like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health or have difficulty finding a funding “slot” between established programs which have budget lines reserved for them. The Founda- tion focuses its research grants in emerging areas and community-building infrastructure to support pioneering researchers as they attempt to develop 1 This letter 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, Jesse Ausubel, Kathleen Christensen, Danny Goroff, Liz Boylan, Josh Greenberg, Paula Olsiewski, Doron Weber, Sibo Lu, and Sonia Epstein for their contributions. 3 alfred p. sloan foundation $ 2011 annual report and test new theories, build new instruments, cre- accurately characterizing the attributes of the in- ate new data sets, and publish their research in top door microbial environment and how it is affected academic journals. In this way the Foundation has by building attributes, building use, the external played a vital role in the development of the now- environment, and other factors. Initial research thriving disciplines of computer science, compu- results make clear that indoor environments are as tational biology, theoretical neurobiology, and be- complex and interrelated as savannahs, swamps, havioral economics. In addition, Foundation grants and rainforests, supporting thriving invisible com- supporting infrastructure and community-building munities of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes have led to new templates, technologies, and stan- that live alongside humans in the buildings where dards for the collection, organization, and open we work, rest, and play. In 2011, the Foundation access of scientific research and data. The Sloan committed over $3 million in grants for research Digital Sky Survey, the Census of Marine Life, and and community-building to researchers studying the Encyclopedia of Life are good examples. the microbiology of built environments, including an exciting project by the University of Colorado The newest entrant in this longstanding Founda- to study microbial populations in municipal water tion tradition is the emerging field of indoor micro- systems, a grant to Yale University to study air- bial ecology. Americans spend about 90% of their borne bacterial communities, and funds to expand time indoors2, yet most research and policy has DNA barcoding libraries to identify the staggering focused on the outdoor environment. The Founda- array of fungi that can be found inside buildings. tion’s program supporting research on the indoor microbial environment, led by Program Director Initiated with Sloan funds in 2009 and led by Vice Paula Olsiewski, is supporting research focused on President Jesse Ausubel, the Deep Carbon Ob- servatory (DCO)—an exciting multidisciplinary, 2 The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality. U.S. EPA/ decade-long, international scientific research pro- Office of Air and Radiation. Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (6609J) Cosponsored with the Consumer Product Safety gram headquartered at the Carnegie Institution of Commission, EPA 402-K-93-007. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpsc- Washington—is devoted to revolutionizing our un- pub/pubs/450.html derstanding of the abundance, distribution, move- 4 alfred p. sloan foundation $ 2011 annual report ment, and properties of carbon under the earth’s try, computational and evolutionary molecular bi- surface. With $13 million in Foundation support ology, computer science, economics, mathematics, thus far, DCO’s structure is now complete with the neuroscience, and physics. In 2011 the first nomi- launch of four scientific directorates—Reservoirs nations in the field of ocean sciences were solicited, and Fluxes, Deep Energy, Deep Life, and Physics with the first awards made in early 2012. and Chemistry of Extreme Environments. STEM Higher Education In most of our basic research programs and most 2011 was a year of transition for the Foundation’s of our educational initiatives, we expect that our programs that focus on higher education in science, grants will help catalyze new areas of inquiry, and technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). that these funds will be leveraged with funding In February, I invited Dr. Elizabeth S. Boylan to from other government, foundation, and private join the Foundation as our new program director sources as the value of the research program be- overseeing the Foundation’s education-related comes more widely recognized. For programs like grantmaking. As the former provost of Barnard the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, neurobiology, com- College, Dr. Boylan—a biologist by training—has putational biology, the Census of Marine Life, the organized, supported, and advanced student and Encyclopedia of Life, etc., Sloan funds represented faculty diversity for 16 years. Under her leadership, a small fraction of the funding as these programs the Foundation is conducting an inventory of its reached maturity. Once the programs reached STEM Higher Education grantmaking programs maturity or achieved their goals, the Foundation and reviewing how well the programs’ strategy gradually withdrew its financial support. and structure advance the Foundation’s goals of increasing the quality and diversity of American Responsible scientific research practices must higher education in STEM fields. Plans for the fu- incorporate an understanding of both the potential ture include an expansion of the Foundation’s goals benefits and the potential adverse effects of this to include promoting diversity all along the aca- research on society. Acceptable research practices demic career path while focusing on high-quality, should apply protocols that minimize the potential hypothesis-driven research on the factors driving risks in ways that are not excessively burdensome student outcomes and retention in STEM fields at on scientific inquiry. The Foundation’s program the undergraduate and graduate levels. in Synthetic Biology, also led by Dr. Olsiewski, partners with scientists, ethicists, and policymak- Public Understanding of Science,