Advancing frontier science and technology since 1986.
Foresight Institute is a research organization founded in 1986. With a track record of supporting Nobel Laureates decades before their acclaim, we focus on areas that are too ambitious or interdisciplinary for legacy institutions. Through grants, prizes, fellowships, and events, we back pioneering scientists and innovators advancing technologies that benefit the future of life.
Upcoming Events
Foresight calendar
Distinguished Awardees
David Baker
Biochemist & Computational Biologist
2004 Winner of our Feynman Prize
2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Sir J. Fraser Stoddart
(1942 – 2024)
Chemist
2007 Winner of our Feynman Prize
2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Our Offerings
Conferences
Our flagship events – the Vision Weekend conferences – gather leading scientists, entrepreneurs, funders, and policymakers to explore the frontiers of science and technology, and plan for flourishing futures.
Workshops
Throughout the year, we host a handful of technical workshops – bringing together top talent to solve the bottlenecks holding back progress at the frontiers of science and technology.
AI Nodes
Our two physical hubs – to be launched in San Francisco and Berlin in early 2026 – offer project funding, office and community spaces, and local compute for ambitious researchers and builders who use AI to advance science and safety.
Grants
Explore our grants, which support projects that use AI to advance science and safety – across security, privacy, decentralized cooperation, epistemics, neurotechnology, longevity biotechnology, and molecular nanotechnology.
Prizes
Honoring the scientists Richard Feynman and Norm Hardy, we award two annual prizes to exceptional contributions to nanotechnology and usable security.
Fellowship
This one-year program supports early-career scientists, engineers, and innovators to supercharge their ability to advance technological progress.
Seminar Groups
Our 40+ online seminars per year feature experts presenting cutting-edge research and practical applications, in a small, focused setting.
Explore Seminars & Podcasts
On beauty, knowledge, and progress
David Deutsch is a physicist at the University of Oxford. He pioneered the field of quantum computation by formulating a description for a quantum Turing machine, as well as specifying an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer. He has also proposed the use of entangled states and Bell’s theorem for quantum key distribution and is a proponent of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this episode of the Existential Hope podcast he shares his thoughts on knowledge, progress, and beauty.
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Gene and cell therapies for age-related and infectious diseases
George Church is a Professor at Harvard and MIT, Director of PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world’s only open-access information on human genomic, environmental and trait data (GET). In this seminar he presents his work on gene and cell therapies for age-related and infectious diseases.
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A Handheld Device to Defeat Cancer
In this podcast episode, we talk with Mary Lou Jepsen about Openwater’s remarkable $10K handheld device that kills cancer cells and treats severe depression – using ultrasound, infrared light and electromagnetic waves.
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Agential interventions: from diverse intelligence to next-generation biomedicine
Michael Levin is the Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University, and associate faculty at Harvard’s Wyss Institute. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed publications across developmental biology, computer science, and philosophy of mind. In this seminar, Levin shares his work on agential interventions.
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Why the future looks better than you think
Steven Pinker is a cognitive psychologist, linguist, and leading public intellectual. In this podcast episode Pinker, a professor at Harvard University and author of renowned books, discusses updates since the publication of ‘Enlightenment Now,’ the exciting progress he envisions, and strategies for advancing towards a brighter future. The discussion covers human progress indicators, declines in war, terrorism, and poverty, as well as the importance of reason, science, and human efforts. Pinker also shares his existential hope for the future, emphasizing the potential for technological advancements, cleaner energy, and continued societal improvements.
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Self Assembling Space Architecture
Dr. Ariel Ekblaw, engineer and researcher at MIT and the Aurelia Institute, presents insights on the latest advancements in next-generation space technologies, with a focus on rapidly evolving technology in cislunar and Low Earth Orbits (LEO). Her work pioneers innovations in commercial space stations and sustainable lunar habitats, including the TESSERAE platform, a breakthrough in scalable, self-assembling space architecture. Dr. Ekblaw’s perspective outlines the future of a robust space economy, driven by engineering advancements in spacecraft systems and habitat construction.
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Using AI for science to solve humanity’s biggest problems
In this podcast episode, Nobel Laureate David Baker reveals how scientists are now inventing entirely new proteins—life’s fundamental building blocks—to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Baker shares his journey and his vision for a future where custom-built “molecular machines,” an idea once explored by thinkers like Eric Drexler, could repair our bodies, clean up pollution, and create sustainable materials. He explains how breakthroughs in AI are supercharging this field, but also why human ingenuity and collaborative science are still essential to unlocking these revolutionary possibilities.
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Tools for mapping and controlling the brain
In this seminar, leading neuroscientist Ed Boyden shares his work on mapping the brain. Boyden wants to understand the ground truth of the brain – what are the building blocks and how do they interact? We need to map the brain using expansion microscopy, then control and observe high speed dynamics using technologies like optogenetics and fluorescent imaging.
Focus Areas
Secure AI
Supporting researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs in computer science, ML, crypto, security, and related fields who leverage those technologies to improve cooperation across humans and ultimately AIs.
40 Years of Foresight
1989: The Conference That Started a Field
In the autumn of 1989, a group of scientists, engineers, and visionaries gathered for the first Foresight Conference on Nanotechnology: the first ever comprehensive conference on the topic of nanotechnology.
1998: The Two Words That Changed Software
In late 1997, Foresight’s office in Los Altos was running weekly meetings on computer security. A phrase coined in one of them – "open source" – would go on to name the foundation most of the modern internet runs on.
What has Foresight made possible?
Four decades of Foresight were built by the people who showed up: Fellows, grantees, prize winners, speakers, funders, community members, advisors, and more. If this includes you, we want to hear your story. This form takes five minutes. Your input shapes our 40th year impact report.