Heising-Simons Foundation

We are excited to announce the 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellowship in planetary astronomy is now open and accepting applications through Friday, October 4, 2024 at 5:00PM EST. Visit our website to learn more and apply. The Fellowship program recognizes early-career scientists of significant potential and provides them with the opportunity to conduct novel research using theory, computation, observation, instrumentation, and/or lab experiments. https://lnkd.in/gAyTNmJH

Grateful! That’s my sentiment as the inaugural Tech and Summit draws to a close at Heising-Simons Foundation with Dr. Joy Buolamwini and Safiya Noble, Ph.D. in conversation. 🍃We opened the summit with our board chair and vice chair Liz Simons and Mark Heising welcoming with opening remarks 🍃Alondra Nelson spoke on Governing the Future — drawing on the lessons of past scientific inquiry to inform future visions 🍃Nabiha Syed and Ami Fields-Meyer in conversation with me on the First AI Election 🍃 Each of our attendees could have been a speaker given the incredible expertise and wisdom in the room … grateful for the conversations in the room and as we go forward #philanthropy #technology #ai

The Heising-Simons Foundation has awarded $3.19 million this year to address the ongoing impact of technology on society in advance of Wednesday’s Technology and Society Summit at the Foundation. The Foundation’s 2024 investments will help create the inaugural Center for Civil Rights and Technology, develop the professional field of algorithmic auditing, and allow partners to advance the U.S. AI Executive Order by providing expert advice to the U.S. Congress on upcoming legislation. https://lnkd.in/gCun6zGW

Congratulations to grantee WITNESS for receiving the inaugural Peabody Global Impact Award, a new category at the 84th annual Peabody Awards recognizing “media or organizations that have profoundly changed the world for the better."   A grantee from Heising-Simons Foundation’s CEO Fund: Technology and Society, WITNESS empowers people to harness the power of video and technology to tell their own stories, document human rights violations, and push for change.

Heising-Simons Foundation Human Rights Director Angie Junck and Program Officer Rose Cahn spoke to Inside Philanthropy about the program's work to end the criminalization of immigrants, move California to a "care first" future, and build out narrative change support across the sector. https://lnkd.in/gXKrQFJE

Honored to be speaking on reparative justice and human rights at Fordham University this Thursday. #reparations #justice #humanrights https://lnkd.in/eZPWr_ei

Welcome Vanessa Goodwin, our new senior legal counsel at Heising-Simons Foundation!   Learn more about Vanessa on our website. https://lnkd.in/gYg_fF53

Check out our new open call for Science events proposals. The Foundation's Science program looks to support meetings, workshops, conferences, summer schools, research collaboration gatherings, and other events related to astronomy, cosmology, fundamental physics, climate change science, and/or increasing the representation and retention of underrepresented groups in these fields. The Science program expects to fund up to $400,000 total in grants during this open call for proposals. Each grant will be between $20,000 and $80,000, and the closing date for the open call is Friday, August 30, 2024. Email science-events@hsfoundation.org with questions. With this open call, the Science program hopes to form new partnerships with scientists, institutions, and communities it has not yet worked with. Correction: current grantees are eligible. https://lnkd.in/gkgrwNb6

In case you missed it: our 2023 annual report is now available on our website. https://lnkd.in/gucJMJxn

In early 2017, theoretical physicist Jonathan Feng was working with postdocs in his group at the University of California–Irvine, when he came to a sudden realization: the largest physics experiment in the world had a blind spot. Click on the story below to learn how Heising-Simons Foundation’s investments in FASER (Forward Search Experiment) are focused on one of the most puzzling unsolved problems in physics. Photo by Jacques Herve Fichet, courtesy of CERN. https://lnkd.in/gCyDihGd