Bill Gates

Nonprofit Aravind Eye Care System Wins $1 Million Prize for Preventing and Curing Blindness in India's Poorest Communities

SEATTLE -- In recognition of its groundbreaking work to prevent debilitating blindness and provide affordable, world-class eye care to the poor, the Aravind Eye Care System, based in Tamil Nadu, India, has won the 2008 Gates Award for Global Health. The $1 million Gates Award—the world's largest prize for international health—honors extraordinary efforts to improve health in developing countries.    » read more »

March 12, 2008 -- "Today's testimony from Bill Gates before the House Committee on Science and Technology affirms what we have been saying: if America doesn't overhaul its educational and immigration systems, and if we don't make greater efforts to support scientific research and development, we risk losing our place as the world's leading economic power. Gates testified that our nation is at a crossroads - and he is absolutely right. In many ways, the choice is up to our elected leaders in Washington, which means it's up to all of us to hold them accountable for making the right choice.    » read more »

Investment intended to help millions of small farmers lift themselves out of hunger and poverty

January 25, 2008 -- DAVOS, Switzerland -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a $306 million package of agricultural development grants designed to boost the yields and incomes of millions of small farmers in Africa and other parts of the developing world so they can lift themselves and their families out of hunger and poverty.    » read more »

Davos, Switzerland, 24 January 2008 – Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates has called for ‘’creative capitalism’’ as a new approach for businesses to help stamp out global poverty and diseases.

Addressing the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 in a session entitled "A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century," Gates said: "The world is getting better, but it is not getting better fast enough, and it is not getting better for everyone.”    » read more »

October 23, 2007 -- SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today $8.3 million in grants to help public libraries in 10 states provide quality access to computers and the Internet. The new "Opportunity Online" hardware grants are for public libraries serving communities with high concentrations of poverty and that are at risk of having outdated technology. Libraries must provide matching funds to be eligible for the grants. These required local funds are expected to total $4.75 million.    » read more »

Fast-track grants initiative to support hundreds of research projects involving scientists around the world

October 9, 2007 -- CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that it is committing $100 million over five years to create a new fast-track grants initiative to support innovative global health research. The initiative's goal is to encourage scientists worldwide to explore creative, unorthodox ideas that could lead to major breakthroughs against some of the greatest health challenges facing poor countries.    » read more »

21 September 2007 -- A leading U.S. financial magazine has released its annual list of the 400 richest Americans - topped by a familiar name, Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Gates leads the Forbes list for the 14th year in a row, with a fortune of $59 billion. Investor Warren Buffet, who pledges money to Gates' charity foundation, follows close behind with $52 billion.

To qualify for this year's list, members had to be worth a minimum of $1.3 billion, which is 300 million more than it took to make the list last year.    » read more »

18 September 2007 -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced $280 million in grants to fight the global tuberculosis epidemic. The money will be used to develop vaccines, diagnostic tests and drugs to treat a disease that kills nearly two million people each year.

The Gates Foundation has pledged $900 million in grants to fight TB by 2015, and the $280 million in awards are part of that package.

With Tuesday's announcement, the Foundation has met almost half of its commitment.    » read more »

Grant Will Fund Institute of Human Virology Research for HIV Vaccine

Annapolis, MD (July 31, 2007) - Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced today that the University of Maryland has received a $15 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The funding will be used to support research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology (IHV) to further develop a promising HIV/AIDS vaccine candidate created by IHV that, in early studies, has shown potential to provide broad protection against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.    » read more »

Innovative high schools in New York City and across the country are preparing more underserved students for college and career successContact:

June 29, 2007 -- SEATTLE -- Faced with an alarming national dropout crisis and widening achievement gap, a growing number of educators, school leaders, and policymakers have focused their attention on high schools, replacing failing campuses with more innovative, high-quality options.    » read more »