One passion that philanthropist Wendy Schmidt and her billionaire husband, Google Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, share is a deep interest in the oceans – often called Earth’s last frontier. The manifestation of that passion is a state-of-the-art ocean research vessel called the Falkor, which the nonprofit Schmidt Ocean Institute bought and spent three years rebuilding, at a cost of about $94 million. The Falkor just made its first visit to San Francisco, docking at the new home of the Exploratorium, the hands-on science museum, at Pier 15.
A crowd of about 150 people – Exploratorium supporters and friends of the Schmidts – was welcomed at the Exploratorium on Tuesday night by Bill Fisher, vice-chairman of the Exploratorium’s board and a Forbes 400 member. Dennis Bartels, executive director of the Exploratorium, complimented the Schmidts on re-outfitting the Falkor “five times faster than any government can run.”
Wendy Schmidt said the Falkor was named after a character from the 1979 Michael Ende novel, The Neverending Story. “The most important element about the character is that he was really lucky,” Schmidt said. Then she described how the Falkor, on its shakedown cruise across the Atlantic last year, used its sonar technology to find a lost ship, the polar exploration vessel S.S. Terra Nova, which had sunk off the coast of Greenland in 1943.
Wendy Schmidt’s primary concern is the health of the oceans. “The oceans are in trouble. They have absorbed so much carbon dioxide that they are destroying coral reefs and the bottom link of the food chain,” she said. “When we spill in the ocean, we’re disrupting a generation of living species.”
The Schmidt Ocean Institute is just one branch of Wendy Schmidt’s philanthropy. Through the Schmidt Family Foundation’s 11th Hour Project, she funds 150 groups that work in the areas of climate and energy, human rights, ecological agriculture, environmentally conscious sailing and the vitality of Nantucket, Mass., where she spends much of her summers.
The Schmidts funded reconstruction of the Falkor with the aim of letting researchers use it for free – as long as they share their data with the public within two months of the research trip. Interest among researchers is high: last year there were some 120 applications for 6 or 7 slots, said Victor Zykov, the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s director of research. Information about the Falkor’s whereabouts and the scientific discoveries made by researchers aboard the ship are on the Schmidt Ocean Institute website. Next stop: Hawaii, where researchers aim to investigate a new island being born east of the big island.
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