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OCR for page 187
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Private Founciations
Private foundations play a special role in the support of research
and teaching in the sciences. It is generally their aim to seek out
innovative activities and modes of support rather than to contribute
toward the kinds of support already being provided by federal or
other agencies.
Where the mathematical sciences have participated in the grants
of private foundations it has usually been as a feature of projects
to strengthen research and teaching in the sciences generally or to
enhance the scientific capabilities of some institution. Also, in
grants made by private foundations for other purposes, the mathe-
matical sciences have appeared as tools, as, for instance, in the con-
struction of mathematical models as one of the activities supported
under grants in economics. It is thus difficult to separate out the
mathematical-science portion of support by private foundations,
and any attempt to do so must be somewhat arbitrary.
Here attention is focused on grants or portions of grants by
private foundations made to aid or encourage work "by mathe-
maticians in a mathematical setting," including work in both pure
and applied mathematics but attempting to exclude mathematical
activities incidental to projects in other fields.
GRANTS BY PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS
Over the period 1955-1966 the seven private foundations most
heavily concerned made grants in the mathematical sciences total
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OCR for page 188
188
Level and Forms of Support
TABLE 19 Grant Support of the Mathematical Sciences by Private
Foundations from 1955 through 1966
FOUNDATION
TOTAL 1955 - 1966
($ MILLIONS)
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Ford Foundation
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Louis W. and Maud Hill Family Foundation
Research Corporation
Rockefeller Foundation
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
3.2
3.3
0.4
0.6
0.2
1.1
0.4
19.2
ing some $19.2 million, as shown in Table 19. This would indicate
that the total annual contribution of grants by private foundations
toward research and higher education in the mathematical sciences
has averaged somewhat under $2 million in recent years.
The purposes for which these grants were made have included the
formation of new mathematical centers (including the construction
of buildings), strengthening of existing departments, research
fellowships, special research support for younger mathematicians,
strengthening of ties between pure and applied mathematics, stimu-
lation of the use of computers, establishment of regional centers of
learning, and a variety of other activities to improve curricula and
teaching in the mathematical sciences. More details are given in
Appendix C.
COMMENTS
We applaud the unique pioneering efforts of the private founda-
tions in support of research and education in the mathematical
sciences and feel that these foundations can hardly do better than
to continue to seek out for support new activities and those that
deserve more support than they are receiving from other sources.
Specific kinds of projects that our panels have commended to the
attention of private foundations for possible support include the
following: selected new programs for the continuing education of
college faculty; new and experimental systems of publication and
OCR for page 189
Private Foundations
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communication; new graduate-level curriculum studies by the Com-
mittee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics; studies
evaluating present programs of degrees intermediate between the
MA and the PhD, and gauging their acceptance by academic ad-
ministrators and accrediting agencies; physical facilities (such as
needed once space or departmental libraries or common rooms) not
otherwise available; programs for graduate education or retraining
directed toward the special problems and needs of women mathe-
maticians; experimental regional centers for curriculum and course
development; special studies of the problems of the underdeveloped
colleges.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
mathematical sciences
