The Jupiter campus of the Max Planck Florida Research Institute is impressive.
When you walk into the modern headquarters of Max Planck, you get the feeling that important work is happening in the brightly lit space and you’d be right.
Max Planck is a place where scientists are hard at work on what they call high risk, high reward science. Max Planck is a place that holds big ambitions, to understand the human brain, to unlock its potential and to find cures for diseases that impact millions all over the world.
We visited Max Planck recently to tour the labs of a scientist that we fund through a fellowship made possible by the Carl Angus DeSantis Foundation.
Dr. Ilika Ghosh is a talented young neuroscientist doing important and potentially groundbreaking research into how the brain works, particularly how the brain uses energy to form memories and function properly.
Her work hopes to impact diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Dr. Ghosh is an ambitious young scientist. We believe she’s a rising star in the field and we are honored to back her work.
She’s in the right place to make a difference.
Max Planck is a world class institution with a rich history of discovery and Nobel Prizes.
There are 86 Max Planck institutes in the world. The Jupiter facility is the only Max Planck location in North America.
Max Planck chose the site because of a need to be close to the cutting-edge research that’s happening in the United States.
The institute was also attracted by FAU, the presence of other research institutions and the friendly policies of state and local government.
We are fortunate to have Max Planck in our community. The institute recruits the best scientists in the world and their innovative model allows them the freedom to pursue big and important goals. High risk, high reward.
Dr. Ghosh is a case in point. Born in Calcutta, Dr. Ghosh has had a lifelong passion for science and started her career as a plant biologist.
Her drive and enthusiasm for her work is remarkable and inspiring.
She spends long hours in the lab, but for Dr. Ghosh it’s a labor of love. This is where she’s happy and fulfilled.
It’s wonderful to see.
We were also impressed by her ability to explain complex brain science to us in terms we could understand.
We were similarly impressed with Dr. Ghosh’s lab leader Dr. Vidhya Rangaraju who explained the promise of this work. It’s necessary to understand the `why’ of the brain (and why sometimes things go wrong) in order to devise ways to fix what breaks down.
The Carl Angus DeSantis Foundation has a special interest in Alzheimer’s, and we are funding promising research at places such as the Mayo Clinic and programs at FAU designed to help families navigate the challenges of that crushing disease.
It’s not lost on anyone that downstream from the cool labs and interesting experiments are real people suffering from maladies that impact their lives and those of their loved ones.
What makes Max Planck special and interesting to us is their approach to science. High risk, high reward.
As a foundation rooted in entrepreneurship and funded by the success of our founder, a serial entrepreneur, we get the upside potential of taking big swings and dreaming big.
Director of Advancement Amanda Jorgensen says the philosophy at Max Planck is to recruit world class scientists and get out of their way.
Listening to Dr. Ghosh discuss her work and seeing her face light up when she talks about its potential makes it easy to see that the philosophy is working. Dr. Ghosh told us she’s thrilled to be working at the institute.
That passion makes us proud to support her work.
It’s also important to note that Max Planck does a lot to engage the community.
It’s outreach to K-12 schools in Palm Beach County brings science to thousands of students. You just know that a spark is being lit for the next generation of innovators.
That’s work that we can all take pride in supporting.
