About the Kempner
The Kempner Institute is a dynamic and diverse community of students, scientists, and engineers dedicated to revealing the foundations of intelligence.
The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University brings together students, scientists, and engineers dedicated to revealing the foundations of intelligence in both natural and artificial contexts, and to leveraging these findings to develop groundbreaking technologies.
Dedicated to propelling AI research on a large scale, the Kempner’s core mission is to drive the field of intelligence research forward and devise solutions to complex problems for humanity’s benefit.
Our research is based on the premise that the fields of natural and artificial intelligence are closely interconnected, leading us to explore possible parallels and connections. By leveraging our understanding of how animals learn and behave, we aim to improve the development of new classes of intelligent artificial agents. At the same time, studying the processes and training methods of artificial systems enhances our understanding of how the brain develops, learns, and controls behavior.
The Kempner’s rapidly growing community encompasses researchers from across Harvard University. Using the Kempner’s world-class compute cluster, one of the largest academic clusters in the world, our scientists undertake interdisciplinary research to develop and understand machine learning systems with an emphasis on improved performance, accuracy, and reliability. Through its educational programming, the institute also supports students at various levels of study, fostering and supporting the next generation of thinkers in the field of intelligence.
Our Space
The Kempner’s hub of activity is a cutting-edge collaboration space on the 6th floor of Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex (SEC). While this location serves as the center of the Kempner Institute’s endeavors, our reach extends beyond it, supporting faculty and students across the University.
Our Story
The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence launched in September 2022 with a generous gift from Priscilla Chan (AB ’07), Mark Zuckerberg (LLD ’17, COL ’06), and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — a philanthropic organization dedicated to solving some of society’s toughest challenges.
Zuckerberg and Chan, who have deep ties to Harvard, named the institute after Zuckerberg’s mother, Karen Kempner Zuckerberg, and his grandparents, Sidney and Gertrude Kempner, who instilled a commitment to education and emphasized the power of the mind to improve one’s world. Recognizing Kempner’s life-long commitment to curiosity and education, the Kempner Institute seeks to better understand the basis of intelligence in natural and artificial systems.