Alvar Hanso
Founder of The Hanso Foundation and supporter of long-term scientific research.
Founder and principal benefactor
Alvar Hanso founded the Foundation to pursue scientific questions that governments and commercial firms were poorly equipped to sustain over decades. His earlier career in international shipping gave him both the means to do so and a lasting interest in the fragility of connected human systems.
Hanso has been a private figure throughout the Foundation's history. He has nevertheless remained closely associated with its central premise: that careful inquiry, backed by patient resources, can alter the prospects of humanity as a whole.
His original support for the DHARMA Initiative is part of the Foundation's historical funding record. The initiative was founded by Gerald and Karen DeGroot; it operated as a separate research undertaking.