Yuri Milner and the Journey to Creating a Better World with Science
Yuri Milner wanted to be a physicist. He wanted to change the world with physics, but he felt he was better with predicting the markets and making money to later support the best minds in physics and science. According to him, there are many causes that are worth supporting, but he feels that keeping the flame of knowledge alive will ultimately help everyone wherever they are in the world.
Giving Time and Money to a Good Cause
The founder of DST Global and a renowned high-tech venture capitalist, Yuri Milner has provided capital to several international companies, including Ali Baba, Facebook, WhatsApp, Stripe, ZocDoc, and Twitter among others. In 2012, he joined more than 230 other signatories in the Giving Pledge, making a pledge to donate at least half of his lifetime wealth to charitable causes.
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The Giving Pledge is the brainchild of Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. It seeks to recruit the world’s billionaires to commit to giving at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. Julia and Yuri Milner joined the Giving Pledge in support of science.
Supporting Science through Several Initiatives
After signing the Pledge, the Yuri Milner’s Foundation launched the Fundamental Physics Prize to award people who had made advances in physics. The same year, he joined other billionaires, including Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Sergey Brin, and Anne Wojcicki to create the Breakthrough Prize. The prize rewards advances in molecular biology and genetics. Later, they add Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics and Breakthrough Junior Challenge, which seeks to reward scientific talents in teenagers.
Yuri also launched the Breakthrough Initiatives with the sole aim of supporting the search for life beyond earth.
Original source to learn more: https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/yuri-milner