Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York-based foundation with assets of approximately $1.5 billion. It was started in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors Corporation. The foundation makes grants in support of original research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and economic performance.

Examples of what is funded
As described on their website, initiatives funded include:
 * The Sloan Research Fellowships - This program seeks to recognize the achievements of outstanding young scholars in science, mathematics, economics and computer science. Past recipients of Sloan Research Fellowships have gone on to win 38 Nobel prizes, 14 Fields Medals (mathematics), and eight John Bates Clark awards (economics).
 * The Sloan Digital Sky Survey - The Foundation has provided core support for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which uses a specialized telescope in New Mexico to perform research to improve understanding of the evolution of the universe. The telescope is also used to further analyze the quantitative basis for dark energy.
 * The Census of Marine Life - This effort, involving top international marine scientists and research laboratories, measures the abundance, diversity and migration patterns of all known species of marine life. In the course of this research, more than 5,000 new species of marine life have been identified.
 * The Encyclopedia of Life – A joint effort with the MacArthur Foundation, this program endeavors to build a reliable online encyclopedia with a Web page for every known species on earth.
 * Public Understanding of Science and Technology - This program focuses on educating the public about science and technology. It includes support for films, television, radio, books, and plays.
 * Workplace, Work Force and Working Families - Foundation efforts over more than a decade have been instrumental in increasing public understanding of working families and creating a social movement to address the challenges they face.

Funds to Wikipedia
In 2008, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation gave $3 million to the Wikimedia Foundation which operates Wikipedia.

Trustees
Accessed September 2009:


 * Stephen L. Brown, Chairman, Retired Chairman and CEO, John Hancock Financial Services, Inc.
 * Mary Schmidt Campbell, Dean, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
 * Frederick Henderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, General Motors Corporation
 * William E. Hoglund, Retired Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, General Motors Corporation
 * Freeman A. Hrabowski III, President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
 * Paul L. Joskow, President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
 * Peter S. Kim, President, Merck Research Laboratories
 * Sandra O. Moose, President, Strategic Advisory Services, Former Senior Vice President, The Boston Consulting Group
 * James Poterba, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Economic Research, Mitsui Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 * Harold T. Shapiro, Chairman Emeritus, President Emeritus, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University
 * Marta Tienda, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Office of Population Research, Princeton University
 * Sheila E. Widnall, Institute Professor, Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Staff
Selected staff members:
 * Paul L. Joskow, President
 * Jesse H. Ausubel, Vice President Programs
 * Joseph Bohrer, Investment Director
 * Kathleen E. Christensen, Program Director

Books

 * David Farber, Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors (University Of Chicago Press, 2002).

Contact details
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 630 Fifth Avenue Suite 2550 New York, NY 10111 Tel: 212-649-1649 Fax: 212-757-5117 Web: http://www.sloan.org

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Foundations and Funders

External articles

 * Brian Burnsed, "Sloan Awards Honor Nation's Top Online Programs", U.S. News & World Report, September 28, 2010.

External resources

 * About, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Graduate Scholarship Programs, accessed October 2010.
 * About, Hamptons International Film Festival, accessed October 2010.