Michael Bloomberg gives transformative $50 million gift to the Museum.
Growing up in Medford, Massachusetts, Michael Bloomberg used to take a trolley, a subway, and a bus to the Museum of Science every Saturday morning. Of this decades-long relationship, Bloomberg says, "I know how important this Museum is and what an impact it can have on young people — because I was one of those young people."
"Those mornings were the highlight of my weeks—and they helped define the course of my life," Bloomberg says. "The Museum of Science is where I learned to ask questions, to recognize just how much there is to learn about the world, and to follow science wherever it leads."
Eventually settling in New York City, where he launched his world-renowned company Bloomberg, L.P. and later became a three-term mayor, he credits those visits to the Museum as inspiring him to "become an engineer, a technology entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and a mayor."
Now Bloomberg ... — has ensured that visitors can have the same eye-opening, life-changing experiences he did as a boy. The $50 million gift provides an endowment for the support of the Museum’s Education Division to be named the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Science Education Center in honor of his parents. It also provides funds to research, design, develop, pilot-test, and disseminate computational thinking/computer science curriculum and activities, as well as funds to develop and produce high-quality food-science initiatives.
The largest single gift in the Museum’s history — the endowment solidifies the Museum’s position as one of the premier educational institutions in the world and transforms its ability to inspire all who enter to think, learn, and question. It also makes possible the longevity of the dynamic exhibits and inspirational programs you know and love.
