The SPR has recently completed receipt of the largest donation it has ever received in support of research into the question of survival. The £2 million donation from Professor Yew-Kwang Ng (黄有光), Emeritus Professor in the Department of Economics, Monash University, Australia, was initially pledged to come mostly from his estate; however Prof. Ng subsequently decided to place the entire amount with the SPR so researchers can begin benefitting from his generosity immediately. This makes the recently renamed Yew-Kwang Ng (黄有光) Fund for Survival Research possibly the largest endowed fund specifically devoted to funding survival research. SPR Honorary Treasurer Dr Richard Broughton has noted that, “Professor Ng’s generosity has given the SPR the means to fund survival research at levels and with a consistency never before possible.”
Chairman of the Survival Research Committee Dr Callum Cooper has said that the committee will be updating its guidelines and procedures to accommodate larger projects, including multi-year programmes. “We are really looking forward to being able to support more substantial research projects, and we are working to get the word out to researchers who can submit high quality proposals,” Dr Cooper commented.
The donor is a distinguished academic who has held chairs and professorships at a number of universities in Australia, China and the USA, and is the recipient of prestigious awards in Economics and Social Sciences, including the highest award (Distinguished Fellow) of the Economic Society of Australia. Until recently he was on the Advisory Board of the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford University, and he delivered the inaugural Atkinson Memorial Lecture at Oxford University in 2018.
Although primarily known for his work in economics, Professor Ng’s interests are wide-ranging, having published more than 30 books and more than 300 refereed journal papers in economics, biology, cosmology, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and happiness studies. Recently he has added to this list with a book on survival, Do We Survive Our Biological Death?: A Rational Examination [EXTERNAL LINK].