Seeking to provide “tinkerers” with freedom to explore hunches and passions, businesswoman and philanthropist Lynn Shostack has given $10 million to permanently endow the Project X innovation fund in Princeton University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Project X, which had been running as a pilot program for two years, provides small but critical amounts of money to engineers who wish to pursue projects that may be outside their formal area of expertise or are too speculative to attract conventional funding.
“I have an element of subversiveness in me,” said Shostack, noting she wanted to bypass the often lengthy justifications and reporting requirements of typical sponsored research. “I know that great minds need freedom.”
Shostack, whose late husband David Gardner was a member of Princeton’s class of 1969, previously endowed the University’s David A. Gardner Magic Project, which continues to fund creative endeavors in the humanities.
In its first years, Project X has supported research ranging from an exploration of techniques to sterilize hospital rooms to the development of an idea for playing highly realistic three-dimensional sound from conventional speakers. In the most recently funded project, environmental engineer Peter Jaffe is pursuing a hunch that an unexpected biological process discovered in some New Jersey soil may lead to a solution for a looming problem with fresh water around the world.
“With this visionary gift, Lynn Shostack is providing Princeton’s engineering faculty with a unique opportunity to do what they do best -- to explore, create and solve -- while engaging students in the thrill of chasing down the boldest of ideas,” said Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman. “I have no doubt that Project X will yield some wonderful surprises and advances in the years ahead.”
