As a physics student at the Norwegian Institute of Technology (now the Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Fred Kavli financed his studies with money from an earlier business venture. As teenagers, he and his brother had made wooden briquettes for automotive fuel during World War II.
Nearly 50 years later, when he sold his aeronautical-, automotive-, and industrial-sensor company, US-based Kavlico Corp, for $335 million, Kavli decided to repeat the experience of his youth on a much grander scale—by using the proceeds from the sale of his business to fund basic research. In late 2000, he founded two nonprofit organizations, the Kavli Foundation and the Kavli Operational Institute. Endowed with more than $100 million, the foundation is establishing research institutes at leading universities worldwide and creating tenured faculty positions. The KOI, with an endowment of about $25 million, will support the foundation’s work by giving grants for research projects...
