EFTA00328899.pdf

From: Shing Tung Yau To: Lesley Groff Subject: Re: Summary of meeting with FAS Dean, Mike Smith and Science Dean Jeremy Bloxham Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2016 03:11:29 +0000 Dear Lesley We are also talking about a center for computational biology where prof Martin Nomak may play a key role This may be much more expensive Please ask Jeffrey Best regards Yau Sent from my iPhone On Feb 17, 2016, at 1:04 PM, Lesley Groff < > wrote: Hello Yau. I will forward this on to Jeffrey for you! Thanks, Lesley Sent from my iPhone On Feb 17, 2016, at 11:21 AM, Shing Tung Yau > wrote: Dear Lesley Can you ask Jeffrey whether any of his friends have interest to fund a center on black hole ?it will take twenty million dollars Best regards Yau Sent from On Feb 16, 2016, at 2:34 PM, Avi Loeb < Dear BHC colleagues, > wrote: I just returned from my meeting with Harvard's FAS Dean, Mike Smith , and Science Dean, Jeremy Bloxham. Below is a summary of the highlights from the meeting: I. I gave an overview on the exciting science of black holes, including the LIGO discovery, the EHT and the importance of black holes for astronomy physics, mathematics and philosophy & history of science. I then described the interdisciplinary nature of the BHC and the history of our proposal to JTF and Hawking visit for the inauguration events on April 18-19. I invited Mike and Jeremy to these events on behalf of all of us. Nina will send the official invitation as soon as we hear back from the trustees of JTF on Friday (per Ashley's latest e-mail) on their decision regarding an accelerated review for our proposal. My understanding is that Ashley sent the reviews that she received last Friday to them for their perusal before reaching their final decision on Friday. 2. Mike asked that we make an implicit mention of the rent payment of $100k in the next iteration on the proposal. He did not like the idea that we pay $100k to Yau for this rent, since in his words EFTA00328899 "this will not withstand an audit". He said that ifJTF will have a problem with the rent provision, then he will be willing to consider helping us on that. 3. Mike also asked where we plan to put the computer system and I told him that it will occupy the same space our the ITC's Odyssey system. He was happy with this arrangement. 4. Mike said that Harvard rules do not allow us to use the word "Center" unless it is endowed. For now we should call it the "Black Hole Initiative" (BHI), until we get a donation to endow it. Mike asked me to compile a list of potential donors and send it to Harvard's development office for approval, with him and Jeremy on the Cc of my e-mail. Important Action item: please send Nina names of potential donors by Friday. I will compile the final list based on your suggestions and some people I know (like Yuri Milner) and will circulate it to Harvard's development office. Once approved, we will be able to actively approach these people. It would be fantastic if we can get the BHC endowed by April 18. The minimum endowment goal should be $20M, since it will provide us with an operating budget of $1M per year. 5. Mike was very excited and positive at the end of the discussion. He is behind us on this initiative. Please keep the above information highly confidential, because there are many other places on campus which are eager to get similar support from Mike. If they know about the status of our initiative, they could damage our prospects for success. We have to work together and keep all the details confidential. I promised Mike and Jeremy to keep them updated as soon as we hear back from the JTF trustees on Friday. Thank you all for making such a wonderful team. I look forward to your suggestions on the important action item above. Avi Abraham Loeb Frank B. Baird, Jr Professor of Science Chair, Astronomy Department, Harvard University Director, Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/—loeb/ EFTA00328900