The Impact of Foundation Funded Research

Foundations often have a mission to provide far-reaching benefits to humanity by making grants that enable cutting-edge research possible. This research, when translated to real-world solutions, creates the exponential "impact" of improving lives for the future. Let's look at one example.

Click the image to open the interactive map in Visible Legacy Navigator

With funding from the W. M. Keck Foundation, researchers at Stanford University, led by principal investigator, Professor Shoucheng Zhang, and his colleagues, Yi Cui and David Goldhaber-Gordon, researched novel "topological insulator" materials where electrons move like automobiles on a highway, spatially separated into different lanes called “autobahn” interconnects, avoiding backscattering and the resulting heat dissipation. These findings could open the door to new computing devices in the future that do not dissipate heat.

We can see in the Visible Legacy Navigator timeline that in 2010 the S. C. Zhang Goup had established a track record of successful projects, and Dr. Zhang had just become the Co-director of the IBM-Stanford Center for Spintronics Science and Application Center. The insightful grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation 5 years ago contributed to the acceleration of innovation in the Zhang Lab and the development of high performance interconnects for integrated circuits.   

Scientists win $1 million for physics research Stanford Report, 2010
 

Foundations contribute in well-thought-out ways to catalyze research of specific topics of their interest that yield innovations poised to deliver substantial social or environmental benefit. The "impact" of this grant-funded research is when the innovations are picked up by industry and brought to the world as solutions. By connecting the dots of repeated successes such as the W. M. Keck Foundation and Stanford University, Visible Legacy helps its users identify hotspots of innovation.  

Shoucheng Zhang wins Franklin Medal in Physics
 

Footnote: Dr. Zhang was recently awarded the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, one of the oldest and most prestigious science awards in the United States.