Fred Kavli, a physicist turned science philanthropist, has died, the New York Times reports. He was 86. Kavli, the Times notes, came to the US in the 1950 and established the Kavlico Corporation, which made sensors that were used on not only kitchen appliances, but also the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and missiles.
Kavli sold his company in 2000 for $340 million and set up a foundation to benefit science, the Times adds. Seventeen Kavli institutes have been set up around the world, with a focus on astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience, and theoretical physics. The foundation has also begun to give out $1 million awards in three of those fields.