Black Hole Initiative funded for three more years

The John Templeton Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has funded the Black Hole Initiative for an additional three year term, until September 2022. This new funding of $7.2 million rewards a success story, leading to a graduate student program on black holes at Harvard University and more than a hundred interdisciplinary papers that have  been published in prestigious journals.

The Center also acted as the headquarters for the operations of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which successfully realized the first direct image of a black hole in M87. It is actively engaged in public outreach and hosts a weekly colloquium series and an annual conference featuring distinguished scientists from around the world.

The BHI is an independent Center within the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Harvard University, involving a collaboration between the Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics, History of Science, and Philosophy departments at Harvard as well as the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Details on its members and activities are available at https://bhi.fas.harvard.edu/.

The John Templeton Foundation, the sole funder of the Black Hole Initiative for its first three years, supports research and dialogue on the deepest questions facing humankind. It funds projects in topics ranging from genetics and evolution to curiosity, forgiveness, and free will. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation fosters path-breaking scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements and preservation of the special character of the Bay Area.

For more information about the Black Hole Initiative and its mission, contact Founding Director Abraham Loeb at aloeb@cfa.harvard.edu.