Carnegie Institution for Science
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1902
- HeadquartersWashington, United States
- Headcount251–500
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
Carnegie Institution for Science firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Carnegie Institution for Science
- Legal name
- Carnegie Institution for Science
- Website
- https://carnegiescience.edu
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1902
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 251–500 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Carnegie Institution for Science industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Scientific Research Services
- NAICS
- Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)
- SIC
- Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Optical Instruments & Lenses (3827)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Comprehensive Doctoral Research Universities (Multi-Disciplinary) (EDAHABAA)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Technical Universities with Energy, Materials & Sustainability Focus (EDAHAEAL)
Keywords
Where Carnegie Institution for Science is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Washington
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices7 records
Markets served
Carnegie Institution for Science business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Others
Revenue model
- Endowment Investment Returns: Carnegie Science's endowment, established by Andrew Carnegie's founding gift of $10 million, has grown to approximately $986 million as of June 30, 2025. The diversified investment pool generated a net return of 9.3 percent in fiscal year 2025. Endowment support enables scientists to pursue research agendas of their choosing.
- Federal Grants: Robust program of federal grants supports scientific research. Carnegie reports over $20 million in proposals pending status. Grant funding enables specific research projects across all divisions.
- Philanthropy: Carnegie receives nearly $11.7 million annually in gifts and grants from more than 600 individual donors and foundations. Over the past 16 years, this support has totaled $186.5 million: $88.6 million from individuals and family foundations, $84.7 million in awards from private foundations, $13.2 million in gifts and grants from other sources.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Carnegie Institution for Science product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Carnegie Institution for Science is an independent nonprofit research organization conducting fundamental scientific research across astronomy, earth and planetary science, and biosciences through three interdisciplinary divisions. It operates world-class research facilities — most notably the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile — develops custom scientific instrumentation in-house, and trains early-career scientists through postdoctoral fellowship programs. Outputs include scientific publications, discoveries, and trained researchers rather than commercial products.
Product overview
Carnegie Institution for Science is an independent nonprofit research organization, not a product company. Its core 'offering' is scientific research conducted across three interdisciplinary divisions: Biosphere Sciences & Engineering (BSE), Earth & Planets Laboratory (EPL), and Observatories. These divisions pursue research from genomes to ecosystems and from planets to the cosmos. Key scientific assets include world-class telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile (Magellan Telescopes, Swope Telescope, du Pont Telescope, and the Giant Magellan Telescope under construction). The institution also offers postdoctoral fellowship programs as a pathway for early career scientists. There is no commercial product platform or software-as-a-service offering.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Biosphere Sciences & Engineering Division (BSE) An interdisciplinary division devoted to disrupting traditional siloed perspectives on life sciences research, pursuing integrated approaches to challenges including developmental biology, ecology, genetics, and plant science across research sites in Pasadena CA, Baltimore MD, and Stanford CA.
- Earth & Planets Laboratory (EPL) A research division that discovers exoplanets, creates new materials, illuminates Earth's inner workings, and explores the universe, located at the Broad Branch Road Campus in Washington, DC.
- Observatories Division The astronomy and astrophysics division that has transformed humanity's understanding of the cosmos, operating world-famous telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile with a research campus in Pasadena, CA.
- Las Campanas Observatory A world-class observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert providing access to first-in-class telescopes including the Magellan Telescopes, Swope Telescope, and du Pont Telescope with exceptional viewing conditions for the Magellanic clouds and southern sky.
- Magellan Telescopes Twin 6.5-meter optical telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory used for astronomical research including exoplanet discovery, galaxy surveys, and cosmological studies.
- Swope Telescope A 1-meter telescope at Las Campanas Observatory used for supernova research, exoplanet surveys, and variable star observations.
- du Pont Telescope A 2.5-meter telescope at Las Campanas Observatory used for wide-field imaging and spectroscopic observations.
- Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs Prestigious postdoctoral fellowship opportunities across all three divisions, including the Carnegie Fellowship, 51 Pegasi b Fellowship (planetary astronomy), Heising-Simons Fellowship, CTAC Fellowship, and the joint Carnegie-Caltech Theory Fellowship, supporting roughly 98 postdoctoral fellows.
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 120 years of breakthrough discoveries transforming understanding of biology, planet, and universe
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Carnegie Institution for Science
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Carnegie Institution for Science technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Carnegie Institution for Science partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.
- NASA (James Webb Space Telescope)coreInternational team led by Carnegie Science's Andrew Newman used James Webb Space Telescope combined with gravitational lensing to successfully measure mass of dormant supermassive black hole in galaxy MRG-M0138, over 10 billion light-years away. First time stellar dynamical measurements extended to cosmological distances.
- Yale UniversitycoreCarnegie Science and Yale University researchers discovered massive 12-mile-thick layer of unusually light rock beneath Bermuda supporting the island above ocean floor. Research published in Geophysical Research Letters challenges traditional mantle plume theory and suggests undiscovered convective processes in Earth's mantle.
- Caltech (California Institute of Technology)flagshipCarnegie Science ended its century-long partnership with Johns Hopkins University to expand collaboration with Caltech in Pasadena, California. This strategic realignment focuses research efforts on the West Coast. Growing partnership includes significant collaborations on technology driving 21st-century science, including next-generation telescopes and instrumentation.
- University of BirminghamcoreUniversity of Birmingham researchers collaborated with Carnegie Science on study published in Astronomical Journal discovering TOI-5205b exoplanet with unusual atmospheric composition orbiting red dwarf star, challenging conventional stellar formation theories.
- University of IdahocoreUniversity of Idaho leads $1.25 million NSF grant with Carnegie Science and Rutgers University as research partners for OneMineralogy project to expand Mindat open mineral database. Project aims to create intelligent data platform enhancing mineral data accessibility for scientists, educators, and public while supporting Idaho's mining workforce development.
- Rutgers UniversitycoreResearch partner with University of Idaho and Carnegie Science on $1.25 million NSF grant for OneMineralogy project to advance Mindat open mineral database through AI and data science applications in mineral mapping.
- The Astrophysical JournalCarnegie scientist Erika Nesvold published research in The Astrophysical Journal Letters modeling HD 106906 stellar system demonstrating how a giant planet shapes debris disk structure through gravitational influence.
- Idaho Mining AssociationminorPartner with Carnegie Science and University of Idaho on OneMineralogy project to apply AI and data science in mineral mapping including cobalt and rare earth elements, supporting Idaho's mining workforce development.
- Giant Magellan Telescope OrganizationflagshipCarnegie Science is building the Giant Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The GMT is a next-generation ground-based telescope poised to provide insights into cosmic origins and the ability to study atmospheres of distant worlds.
Scale indicators12 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Carnegie Institution for Science competitors and assessment
Company assessmentRegional players
- American Museum of Natural History: AMNH operates a multi-divisional research enterprise spanning astrophysics, Earth science, and biology comparable to Carnegie's three-division structure, with a major observatory program and significant endowment-driven science operations.
- Field Museum of Natural History: The Field Museum is a research-focused natural history institution conducting Earth and life sciences research comparable to portions of Carnegie's Biosphere Sciences and Earth & Planets Laboratory portfolios, particularly in geochemistry and mineralogy.
Emerging players
- SETI Institute: SETI is a nonprofit research institute focused on astrobiology and exoplanet science that overlaps with Carnegie's planetary and astrobiology programs. Both operate as private research institutions with mixed federal grant and philanthropic funding.
- Space Telescope Science Institute: STScI operates Hubble and JWST science operations, comparable to Carnegie's Observatories division in conducting space-based astronomical research. Both compete for federal astronomy funding and produce high-impact cosmological and exoplanet science.
Direct peers
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute: HHMI is the largest private biomedical research organization in the US, funding and operating research labs similar to Carnegie's Biosphere Sciences & Engineering division. Both are private nonprofit research institutions with large endowments and a focus on investigator-driven basic science.
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Scripps is a major multi-disciplinary Earth and ocean science research center comparable to Carnegie's Earth & Planets Laboratory, with similar scale of federal grant funding and investigator-driven research model.
- Smithsonian Institution: The Smithsonian operates research centers across astrophysics, planetary science, and biology comparable to Carnegie's three divisions. Both are large, endowed research complexes with major observatory facilities and museum/public-engagement mandates.
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: WHOI is an independent nonprofit oceanographic research institution comparable to Carnegie in operating large-scale field research infrastructure with a multi-disciplinary science portfolio and a mix of federal and philanthropic funding.
- The Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Salk is an independent nonprofit biological research institute in La Jolla, California, comparable to Carnegie in operating private research labs focused on fundamental biological science with a small, elite researcher model and significant endowment funding.
Broad incumbents
- California Institute of Technology (Caltech): Caltech is Carnegie's newly expanded strategic partner and operates astronomical observatories (Palomar, Keck) plus Earth and planetary science programs that directly overlap with Carnegie's research portfolio. Comparable as a research-intensive scientific institution with major instrument-building capabilities.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Carnegie Institution for Science social profiles
Digital presenceCarnegie Institution for Science financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Carnegie Institution for Science leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles13 records
Carnegie Institution for Science funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds9 records
Investors1 record
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Carnegie Institution for Science M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments1 record
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Frequently asked questions about Carnegie Institution for Science
What does Carnegie Institution for Science do?
Carnegie Institution for Science is an independent nonprofit research organization conducting fundamental scientific research across astronomy, earth and planetary science, and biosciences through three interdisciplinary divisions. It operates world-class research facilities — most notably the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile — develops custom scientific instrumentation in-house, and trains early-career scientists through postdoctoral fellowship programs. Outputs include scientific publications, discoveries, and trained researchers rather than commercial products.
Is Carnegie Institution for Science a public or private company?
Carnegie Institution for Science is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Carnegie Institution for Science founded?
Carnegie Institution for Science was founded in 1902. It employs 251 to 500 people.
Where is Carnegie Institution for Science based?
Carnegie Institution for Science is headquartered in Washington, United States, in the North America region.
How does Carnegie Institution for Science make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Endowment Investment Returns are the primary driver. The others are federal Grants and philanthropy.
Who are Carnegie Institution for Science's main competitors?
Regional players on record are American Museum of Natural History and Field Museum of Natural History. Emerging players are SETI Institute and Space Telescope Science Institute. Direct peers are Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Smithsonian Institution, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Carnegie Institution for Science have an API?
No public API is recorded for Carnegie Institution for Science.
What industry is Carnegie Institution for Science in?
Carnegie Institution for Science's product category is Scientific Research Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAHABAA, Comprehensive Doctoral Research Universities (Multi-Disciplinary), with a secondary code of EDAHAEAL, Technical Universities with Energy, Materials & Sustainability Focus. Its NAICS code is 54169 and its SIC code is 8731.