Foresight Institute is a non-profit advancing frontier biotech, neurotech, nanotech, and AI for the benefit of life. We were co-founded by Eric Drexler and Christine Peterson in 1986 on a vision of great futures enabled by powerful technologies.
Our work is divided into three strategies:
1.
We fund undervalued talent via three programs: grants, fellowships, and prizes
2.
We support field-building and project incubation via our workshops, seminars, and Vision Weekends
3.
We map high-impact paths for progress via our tech trees, technical reports, and Existential Hope program
President & CEO
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer
Scientific Partnerships
& Growth Partner
Communications Manager
Existential Hope Director
Program Coordinator
Program Coordinator
Adviser, Fractional CFO
Administrative Manager
Senior Fellow
Director
Director
Director
Treasurer
Secretary
Fellowship
Since 2017, the Foresight fellowship has provided a launchpad for exceptional technical individuals through funding matchmaking, mentorship, career development, and visa support.
Grants
Given potentially short AGI timelines, the Foresight AI Safety Grants award $2M per year to support underexplored AI safety approaches, including AI security, multi-agent AI, automating research, and neuroscience for AI. We accept applications on a rolling basis.
Feynman Prizes
Since 1993, Foresight Institute has awarded the Feynman Prizes to award progress in Nanotechnology. Two former Feynman Prize winners, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, and David Baker, were later awarded separate Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work we recognized years earlier with our prizes.
The Norm Hardy Prize
The Norm Hardy Prize is awarded to encourage work that helps users make wise computer security decisions.
The Longevity Prize
The Longevity Prize awards outstanding progress in longevity research — crowdsourced and curated by leading industry experts.
Foresight seminars regularly showcase new research and companies to grow a field, functioning as virtual Schelling Points for field-building, hiring, and onboarding talent.
Foresight workshops de-risk undervalued technology frontiers, support networking, fundraising, and co-founder matchmaking, and incubate novel projects that aim to break through critical bottlenecks holding back a field.
Existentialhope.com is a platform that curates future-positive resources and opportunities to coordinate progress in transformative science and technologies for the long-term flourishing of life.
While the majority of our work is focused on hands-on support, we publish seminar summaries, workshop reports, Youtube recordings, podcasts, and a Substack for public education.
Foresight Institute’s Tech Trees map paths to progress in Nanotech, Neurotech, Space, Longevity, and Cryptography to help new talent and funders understand how they can help advance those fields.
HQ:
The Foresight Institute
50 California Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94111
Conferences and Seminars
Written Media
Podcasts
Karolina, Chief Operating Officer at Foresight Institute, is a policy and technology expert who has advised the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and the Council of Europe.
Her experience includes research at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and communications at a Swedish startup developing government software. Karolina serves on the Governing Bodies of the Global Shapers Community, a 10,000-member network driving local change. She is committed to making public institutions sustainable and fit-for-future.
As Chief of Innovation & Strategy at The Foresight Institute, Niamh Peren spearheads the Prizes, Fellowship, and co-Directs the AI Safety Grants. Renowned for her groundbreaking effort as an environmental activist, Peren led her government petition ‘Tino Pai Aotearoa/ Thumbs Up New Zealand’ to legislation; now a lived experience. She advises organizations on future strategy and environmental impact, and is an invited keynote speaker on these issues in forums like the Chanel Earth Month Speaker Series, Vogue Business ‘Metamorphosis: How to Implement AI Responsibly’ at Berlin Fashion Week, and will moderate the neurotech panel at ‘Radical Innovation Summit’. She holds a Master of Science in Strategic Design & Management from The New School in NYC, where she won the President’s Scholarship and the John L. Tishman Scholarship. In film Peren street cast for the following auteurs and projects: Dame Jane Campion (Top of the Lake; Golden Globes Winner, Emmy Winner, BAFTA Nominee), Jonathan Glazer (Waterfalls), Garth Davis (Lion; BAFTA Winner, Golden Globes Nominee, Academy Award Nominee), and more.
Amber Duettmann serves as the Scientific Partnerships & Growth Partner at Foresight Institute, supporting key partnerships and growth initiatives since 2024. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Affective Brain Lab at UCL and the Max Planck Centre for Computational Psychiatry, she explores how Human-AI interactions shape cognition and well-being. With experience in expansion strategy at Mondu.ai, strategy consulting at Bain & Company, and investment banking at J.P. Morgan, and holding an MSc in Cognitive Sciences (Distinction, Dean’s List) and a BSc in Economics & Philosophy, Amber brings an interdisciplinary lens to shaping the future at the intersection of technology and humanity.
Madeleine Ahlström serves as Communications Manager at Foresight Institute since 2025. She has communications experience from tech, book publishing and the non-profit sector, and a degree in Business & Economics from Stockholm School of Economics.
Beatrice is Existential Hope Director. She has a background in the publishing industry and has several years of experience working with communication at Foresight and at a publishing house. Her special interest in the integration of technology and society has led her to work for Foresight Institute.
She holds a BA in Comparative Literature and a MS in History of Science and Ideas from Uppsala university.
Selected appearances:
Lydia La Roux serves as the Program Coordinator, managing the organization’s Seminars and Workshops. Lydia has worked at Foresight Institute since 2023. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2021 with a background in music, English literature, and political philosophy. Lydia focuses on running the seminar program, developing community collaborations, and directing workshops, conferences, and program execution.
Amy Jehan serves as the Program Coordinator at Foresight Institute, managing the organization’s Fellowships and Grants programs since 2023. With a background in program and events management and a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Amy focuses on grant management, program execution, and building operational systems.
He is currently the Head of Business Operations at GiveWell, a nonprofit that identifies cost-effective giving opportunities, focusing on global health. Prior to that, he was COO at Momentum, which builds software based on behavioral science and AI to help nonprofits raise more money. He co-founded BURN, a TIME100 most influential company of 2024. He was formerly interim CEO of Equalize Health (fka D-Rev), where he led an acquisition to Bill Gates’ Global Health Labs. He is also a Co-Founder and fractional COO at Juniper Ventures, the first venture fund solely focused on AI assurance. He holds degrees in Biomedical Engineering (University of Rochester) and Civil and Environmental Engineering (University of Colorado).
Sherry is Foresight’s Administrative & Financial Manager. She joined Foresight early in 2022 following a long career in the financial industry with a focus on asset-backed securities, and with more recent experience in administrative and financial support to non-profits.
