Our History
In the early 1900s, the industrial revolution brought significant advancements to society. But progress’s evil twin, pollution, soon became a problem. In response to the smoke billowing from factories and refineries, Frederick Gardner Cottrell, a professor at University of California, Berkeley, invented the electrostatic precipitator, an air pollution device that uses the force of an induced electrostatic charge to remove particles from a flowing gas, such as air.
The electrostatic precipitator not only reduced air pollution but retrieved valuable metals that had previously escaped from smokestacks. It was a novel invention, one that is still in use today.
Cottrell was a remarkably altruistic man. He decided he would produce and sell electrostatic precipitators, and use the profits to support the research of other scientists. To that end, he established Research Corporation (America’s second oldest foundation) in 1912. The original board of directors, made up of eminent scientists, was recruited by Cottrell and by Charles Doolittle Walcott, then secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. With the backing of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, Walcott assisted Cottrell in founding Research Corporation and served as its unpaid executive officer during its first years.
Success in the precipitator business made the Foundation’s first grant possible in 1918. During the next 25 years, numerous projects were identified and funded, including E.J. Cohn’s work with proteins; Kenneth Davidson’s research in hydrodynamics; Robert Goddard’s exploration of rocketry; Johnson O’Connor’s development of aptitude testing; Ernest Lawrence’s invention of the cyclotron; Robert Van de Graaff’s invention of the Van de Graaff generator; and Roger Williams’ discovery of pantothenic acid.
After several years of managing the electrostatic precipitator patent, Research Corporation staff realized they had developed a skill that could provide another type of help with scientific discovery: patent management. In 1937, the Foundation signed an agreement with MIT to manage all of the school’s scientific patents; other institutions followed and RCSA was in the patent management business for the next 50 years.
During World War II, like many U.S. businesses, Research Corporation focused its resources on supporting the war effort. Research Construction Co. Inc., in cooperation with the Radiation Laboratory at MIT, produced for the government, on a “no profit and no loss” basis, $12 million worth of experimental radar apparatus. Research Construction ended with the war.
During the 1940s and 1950s, several inventors donated their patents to the Foundation. Some of these donations expanded the course of the Foundation yet again. Inventions included the first antifungal antibiotic (nystatin) donated by Elizabeth Hazen and Rachel Brown (1951); royalties from the commercial synthesis of vitamin B1 contributed by Robert R. Williams and Robert E. Waterman (1935); the patent on the maser-laser concept given by Charles H. Townes (1951); and the process for growing hybrid seed corn created by Donald F. Jones and Paul C. Mangelsdorf (1949). Williams and Waterman’s donation spawned the Williams-Waterman Fund for the Combat of Dietary Disease, which eliminated deaths from beriberi worldwide.
By 1983, the Foundation had totally divested itself of the electrostatic precipitator. In 1987, Research Corporation separated from its technology transfer component when Research Corporation Technologies was established as a totally separate entity to the Foundation.
Today, RCSA is Wholly a Philanthropy
RCSA is a private operating foundation that aids basic research in the physical sciences (mainly astronomy, chemistry, and physics) at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. It supports efforts to improve science education and partners with other foundations, government agencies, and private philanthropists to catalyze collaborative, breakthrough science. It does not claim rights to discovery.
The Foundation is governed by its Board of Directors, whose members include men and women who have distinguished themselves in academia, finance, industry, and the professions.
Over the years, the Foundation has supported the work of over 18,000 scientists: 43 have received Nobel Prizes, and countless others have made discoveries and contributed to the body of science.