Funding for Mathematics Research is Scarce. A Big Gift Underscores the Potential Impact for Donors
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Melinda Nagy/SHUTTERSTOCK
Philanthropy’s support of basic science is one of those areas Inside Philanthropy likes to spotlight, as the academic work is typically overshadowed by the far larger sums that (understandably) go toward the more application-focused areas like medical research. But even we have not been so attentive to philanthropy for one of the most fundamental of basic sciences: mathematics.
After all, pretty much everyone gets the need for advances in areas like cancer treatments or cleaner energy technologies. But we likely don’t feel the same urgency for, say, problems in anabelian geometry and field arithmetic, or the impact of special algebraic cycles on Shimura varieties, or symplectic topology. Still, we need these and other problems in the field of math to be explored and solved and created, as pretty much all science and technology is inextricably intertwined with, or based upon, advances in pure mathematics. And researchers are always developing new ways to apply mathematics to other fields of study, even in seemingly unexpected fields like biology.
But a recent gift of substantial size from Jim and Marilyn Simons and Henry and Marsha Laufer, along with the announcement of the 2022 Fields Medal honoring mathematicians, are good reminders of the importance of philanthropy in math. In May, the Simonses and the Laufers each committed $35 million to the Berkeley-based nonprofit the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, renamed as of August 1 the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute. Both the Simonses and the Laufers have long supported the institute, and the gift is reportedly the largest endowment gift ever made to a U.S. institution dedicated to mathematics.
The institute, now in its 40th year, runs semester-long programs that bring together mathematicians from all over the world to work together on areas of mathematics. (The institute is located on the UC Berkeley campus but is technically an independent nonprofit.) The organization also runs workshops for graduate students, champions math education, conducts public outreach and more. But the pure math research programs — those semester-long meetups — are the institute’s bread and butter, explained Ann Averitt, director for advancement and external relations.
During those topic-specific programs, top mathematicians will converge on the Simons Laufer Institute’s building in Berkeley to brainstorm and form new working collaborations. “For the time that any program is running, we’ll be the pinnacle, as far as the research for that topic goes,” Averitt said. “The mathematicians can go across disciplines and have the opportunity to meet that they otherwise wouldn’t have at their home institutions.”
The Simonses’ gift was actually directed through the Simons Foundation, a major funder of basic science research and itself one of the more important philanthropic supporters of math research and math education. Of course, Jim Simons’ connection to math goes back a long way. Before getting into the algorithm-fueled hedge fund work that made him a billionaire, he was chairman of the math department at Stony Brook University and drove important developments in the field. He has also championed math education, founding the nonprofit Math for America in 2004 to recruit more qualified math teachers. Henry Laufer is also a mathematician and a longtime colleague of Simons: He worked with Simons at Stony Brook University and also served from 1992–2009 as vice president of research at Simons’ Renaissance Technologies.
The Simons Foundation supports math in a variety of ways, explained David Spergel, foundation president. Mathematicians don’t need much in the way of equipment beyond chalk, blackboards, pencils, paper, and presumably sandwiches. What they do need is time, and that’s what a lot of math philanthropy goes toward — supporting things like their academic positions, travel to conferences and programs like those run by the MSRI and other math-focused organizations, postdoc researchers, and sabbaticals. One of the Simons Foundation’s most important math funding programs provides traveling grants of just a couple of thousand dollars that enable mathematicians to get to conferences and meet others in their fields.
While many funders contribute to the field of mathematics through their focus on STEM education, not many philanthropic foundations beyond Simons and a few other science funders, such as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, support pure mathematics. Other top science funders, like the Packard Foundation, provide academic fellowships, some of which go to mathematicians.
“One of the nice things about our support of pure mathematics is that we can be very impactful because we’re one of the few philanthropic funders in the area,” said Spergel. “There’s a lot of foundations working in biomedical fields, particularly translational things, and often, smaller philanthropic efforts associated with people with a personal connection, often to a disease. Mathematics seems abstract, but it has impacts all over the place.”
For example, Spergel said, the Simons Foundation has collaborated with the federal government’s National Science Foundation to create the NSF-Simons Research Centers for Mathematics of Complex Biological Systems, which conducts research and education at the intersections of mathematics and biology.
The full extent of philanthropy for math is, ironically, hard to quantify. Many foundations support universities in ways that indirectly support math, and some giving even goes directly to math departments. But current and aspiring science funders should keep in mind that math, abstract as it may seem to those outside the discipline, is part of almost every field of science and technology, and shouldn’t be overlooked. With a little dedication and patience, a funder can make a big splash.
Which brings us to the latest round of awards given out by the International Mathematical Union, including one of math’s highest honors, the Fields Medal. Of the nine mathematicians recognized this year, five are current or previous Simons grantees. That includes two of the four winners of the Fields Medal.
