The Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce honored Gordon and Betty Moore with their 2017 Tall Tree Global Impact Award. Foundation trustee and 2013 award recipient, John Hennessy, was on hand to present the award on May 16, 2017. His remarks honoring Gordon and Betty follow.
It’s 1965, a young engineer in his mid-30’s, working at Fairchild Semiconductor writes an audacious paper predicting that the number of transistors on a chip will double every year for at least a decade.
That prediction becomes enshrined as Moore’s Law, and exists for not one, but five decades! That integrated circuit revolution changed our world; without it there would be no personal computers, no Internet, no cell phones, etc.
But, of course, it did not just “happen.” It was the product of creativity, hard work, and solid engineering. Gordon Moore was at the center of it, both in founding Intel and helping lead the company for decades.
With that history, it is no surprise that when Gordon and Betty Moore developed their vision for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, it would be equally ambitious in its scope and far reaching impact.
This is amply illustrated in Gordon and Betty’s own words, which form the opening paragraph of their Statement of Founder’s Intent:
Betty and I established the foundation because we believe it can make a significant and positive impact in the world. We want the Foundation to tackle large, important issues at a scale where it can achieve significant and measureable impacts. The foundation’s ability to take risks and make long-term and relatively large commitments should allow it to undertake challenges not accessible to many other organizations. Betty and I believe that science and the type of rigorous inquiry that guides science are keys to achieving the outcomes we want. Scientific methodology should be a cornerstone of nearly all of the foundation’s efforts.
In one interview, Gordon said:
“Governments have far more resources than individuals like me, but they don’t seem to be able to initiate much. Private money can get something going. It can take a lot more chances. We’re venture capitalists in these conservation efforts.”
Motivated by what they personally saw in terms of environmental destruction and degradation, Gordon and Betty made conservation and environmental work one of the major areas of focus for the foundation. In the past 15 years, the foundation has made significant progress in preserving and restoring some of our most important wild ecosystems.
For example, the foundation's Wild Salmon Ecosystems Initiative supported work to designate protected areas and strengthen the management of tens of millions of acres of spectacular North Pacific Rim watershed and temperate rainforest habitat, with millions more under consideration for additional protections.
Or, consider the Andes-Amazon region, home to more than 30 million people, an estimated 10 percent of the Earth's species and 20 percent of its fresh water. The foundation has helped secure the biodiversity and climate function of the Amazon basin. Since 2001, the foundation has helped preserve more than 170 million hectares in the Amazon — an area more than four times the size of California.
Gordon and Betty’s environmental efforts go far beyond land protection to address questions such as: how do we change farming practices to avoid slash and burn consumption of rain forest lands? Or how to avoid overfishing and guarantee a sustainable seafood supply? These efforts attack the root cause of environmental destruction and degradation.
Gordon and Betty saw a need and opportunity to improve the quality and safety of care in hospitals, starting with nurses. Through the Betty Irene Moore Nursing Initiative, they helped provide training to develop the skills necessary to improve the care delivered in the Bay Area and across the country. For example, their efforts led to 80 percent reduction in central line infections and a reduction in readmission rates in one-third of local hospitals.
The foundation also helped to establish the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, at a time when nurses are playing an even more crucial role in health care and the supply of highly qualified nurses was falling short.
Gordon’s passion for science and interest in technological breakthroughs has inspired the foundation to invest in next-generation tools that will enable scientific discovery for years to come. From early support for adaptive optics for astronomy, to a prototype for an accelerator-on-a-chip, to supporting work on data science and quantum effects, the foundation has been an early mover in several areas critical to our scientific future.
Gordon and Betty spent most of their lives in the Bay Area, and the Moore Foundation has a vigorous Bay Area Program that has provided support for Bay Area science museums and contributed significantly to the preservation of open space in the Bay Area.
The Moores have said they want their philanthropic endeavors to improve life not just now but 10,000 years from now. But who can predict the future 100 years out, let alone 10,000?
That 10,000-year commitment is deeply embedded in the foundation’s two largest efforts: conservation that is preserving the best of our world for future generations and science that funds the discoveries that can, over time, make the world better for those that follow.
While the goals of the foundation are as ambitious as Moore’s Law was at its origin, Gordon and Betty are thoughtful and humble people. For me, serving on the board of their foundation is an honor and a privilege.
I cannot imagine two more deserving people for the Global Impact Award. Through their philanthropy, Gordon and Betty will improve all our lives, here in the Bay Area, as well as globally, for the present and for generations to come. What a legacy.
John Hennessy was the 10th president of Stanford University and now is the inaugural Shiriam Family Director of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program. He also serves as a trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
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