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In a recent OP-ED published by the Wall Street Journal, Gerstner Philanthropies founder and Chairman, Louis. V. Gerstner, Jr., highlights the important role one-time emergency financial assistance can play in preventing homelessness. "Shelter services for a family in New York City cost $191 a day, or nearly $70,000 a year, according to the mayor’s office. That adds up to a total annual cost of $1.2 billion," Gerstner writes. "The best way to help is by preventing homelessness in the first place. Gerstner Philanthropies has spent more than $36 million on a program called Helping Hands. It provides small amounts of money to help otherwise stable people overcome short-term emergencies and stay out of shelters."

As highlighted in their newly released annual report, Gerstner Philanthropies is working with Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) to support early career physician-scientists launch careers in the face of the unique challenges that come with juggling the rigors of clinical care and laboratory research. “The development of the Gerstner Physician Scholars Program is critically important to address the shortfall of cancer subspecialists who are highly trained as experts in both clinical care and scientific research, and who can translate their findings from the bench to the bedside, and back,” says Monika Shah, MD, Deputy Physician-in-Chief of Education and Faculty Affairs at MSK.

Four physician-scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have been named 2023 Gerstner Scholars and will receive funding for up to three years to support their research. In addition, one 2020 Gerstner Scholar will receive the highly coveted Gerstner Merit Award. The Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholars Program was established 15 years ago to provide exceptionally talented physician-scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) with critical funding. This generous support allows early-career scientists to conduct high-risk, high-reward research and gather the pilot data necessary to apply for grants from the National Institutes of Health and other sources. The Gerstner Scholars Program is a model faculty development program for researchers across the continuum at VP&S, providing the foundations to build biomedical research careers. The physician-scientists named as 2023 Gerstner Scholars: Shah Ali, MD Edmond Chan, MD Pamela Good, MD Juan-Manuel Schvartzman, MD, PhD Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD, a 2020 Gerstner Scholar, has been awarded the Gerstner Merit Award. In 2014, the Gerstner Family Foundation created the Gerstner Merit Award to provide an additional year of funding for a Gerstner Scholar in his or her third year who has made remarkable strides in research and demonstrated extraordinary growth as an academic biomedical investigator.

Gerstner Philanthropies is proud to announce that two Gerstner Scholars at Dartmouth earned distinction for their undergraduate work. Cady Rancourt, a Dartmouth ’24 Gerstner Scholar has won the “Made at Dartmouth” competition for her video sharing the results of her examination of college teaching practices. Her testimonial was chosen from hundreds across campus for its thoughtful articulation of her research to date. Rancourt was also recently awarded the James O. Freedman Presidential Scholarship this year, an additional honor which will provide financial and advising support for her work as a research assistant in preparation for undertaking a senior honors thesis. Gavin Fry, a Dartmouth ’25 Gerstner Scholar, has received a Goldwater Scholarship to support his pursuit of a research career in meteorology. As one of 413 students chosen nationally, he will receive up to $7,500 for the academic year. Fry, a sophomore at Dartmouth, will use this scholarship to continue his study of severe weather climatology in the Mid-South. As a first-gen and low income student, Gavin has said that “Coming here—having the resources to succeed, having the help, making the connections—has been instrumental in my ability to succeed, and beyond that, it gave me the confidence to say that I can actually apply to do these things.”

Gerstner Philanthropies is excited to announce that the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core, part of the American Museum of Natural History’s new addition, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, will open to the public on May 4, 2023. This addition will create more than 30 connections among 10 of the Museum’s buildings to improve visitor circulation on campus, and will feature all new exhibition galleries, learning labs and collections facilities. The Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core will display over 3,000 objects from the Museum’s research collections and will span across three levels. The Collections Core is designed to showcase the importance of scientific collections as the bedrock on which scientific discoveries stand. The glass panels of the Collections Core will give visitors the opportunity to view scientists in-action working with the specimens on display. Along with the Collections Core, the Gilder Center will also include an all-new insectarium, with the world’s largest live leafcutter ant display, as well as a live butterfly vivarium. “The Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation is a glorious new facility that fulfills a critical need at a critical time: to help visitors to understand the natural world more deeply, to appreciate that all life is interdependent, to trust science, and to be inspired to protect our precious planet and its myriad life forms,” said Ellen Futter, President Emerita of the American Museum of Natural History.