It was an initial donation of $100M in 2000, followed up by $50M in 2008. I believe Lazaridis' financial support has ended with the difficulties at RIM, but PI is by now self-sufficient and supported by the Canadian government.
The place is well known for hosting some pretty crazy and speculative research. It is the only institution I know of that has a Quantum Foundations department. But they have enough money that they have been able to attract some big names to lend significant degree of respectability to the place.
(I'm starting a postdoc at PI in the fall, and the complete freedom available there was a big part of the attraction.)
Comments
This is pretty much what Mike Lazaridis of RIM did to set up The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perimeter_Institute_for_Theoret...
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/
It was an initial donation of $100M in 2000, followed up by $50M in 2008. I believe Lazaridis' financial support has ended with the difficulties at RIM, but PI is by now self-sufficient and supported by the Canadian government.
The place is well known for hosting some pretty crazy and speculative research. It is the only institution I know of that has a Quantum Foundations department. But they have enough money that they have been able to attract some big names to lend significant degree of respectability to the place.
(I'm starting a postdoc at PI in the fall, and the complete freedom available there was a big part of the attraction.)