Michelson Philanthropies is thrilled to announce that our founder and co-chair, Dr. Gary K. Michelson, has been honored by Research!America, the country’s leading nonprofit medical and health research alliance.
The organization presented Dr. Michelson with the Gordon and Llura Gund Leadership Award at its annual Advocacy Awards, which recently took place at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
The award is given to individuals who – through philanthropy, research, or other contributions – have increased the level of advocacy for medical, public health, and health-related research at the local or national level.
“We are honored to recognize Dr. Gary K. Michelson with the 2025 Gordon and Llura Gund Leadership Award,” said Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley. “Dr. Michelson’s staunch advocacy efforts have been extremely effective, contributing to a billion dollar increase in NIH funding…Advocates and leaders like Dr. Michelson can help increase funding so our research community can reach its fullest potential.”
Previous winners have included Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and Michael Milken. Speaking at the event, Dr. Michelson quoted Milken while explaining his commitment to advocating for medical research in the context of government funding: “Michael Milken once told me, ‘Government is the great archimedean lever’. Government has the money and government has the power.”
Dr. Michelson went on to explain why continuing to fund government agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is so vital in today’s global economy: “We cannot compete in this world on the cost of labor, and we can’t compete on the price of goods that require labor. So where can the United States successfully compete? The answer is technology and know-how.”
He then highlighted the impact the NIH and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have had on the wider economy: “The NIH has been an economic powerhouse…look at returns on the human immunome project, it’s almost incalculable,” he said. “Look at two of the products of DARPA: GPS and the internet. You can’t begin to calculate the value of those things. Technology is our strong suit and science is the economic engine that propels technology.
“We can’t afford not to [fund research],” Dr. Michelson stressed. “If we cede this to China we’re in big trouble.”
Along with his long-running advocacy for agencies like the NIH, in the summer of 2024, Dr. Michelson and his wife, Alya, gave $120 million to UCLA to kickstart the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy (CIII). The new research center, which is currently being built in West Los Angeles, will fuel groundbreaking investigations into immunology and vaccine development.
