In 1925, Simon Guggenheim, United States Senator from Colorado and a member of one of America’s most successful and philanthropic families, and his wife, Olga, decided to charter a new Foundation as a memorial to their son John Simon, who died in 1922. They were determined to create something valuable and hopeful, with wide-ranging impact. The result was a newly minted and uniquely American institution, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The Foundation set out to encourage and support the most gifted individuals and allow them to do their work under the freest possible conditions.

To fulfill its mission, the Foundation awards an average of 175 fellowships annually. Fellows are selected by their scholarly and artistic peers from roughly 3,000 applications a year. Altogether, the Foundation has awarded over 18,000 Fellowships. Fellows have gone on to win more than 120 Nobel Prizes in literature, economics, and the sciences; 10 Fields Medals in Mathematics (considered the Nobel Prize in the field); Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards in all fields.