Martine and Bina Rothblatt
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Sirius XM, United Therapeutics
FUNDING AREAS: Nanotechnology, Scientific and Medical Research
OVERVIEW: Martine Rothblatt and her wife Bina move their philanthropy through the Terasem Movement Foundation (TMF), whose mission is to promote the geoethical use of nanotechnology for human life extension.
BACKGROUND: Martine Rothblatt graduated with a bachelor’s degree, J.D., and MBA from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in medical ethics from the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry. She co-founded and led Sirius XM as its chairman and CEO, and launched other satellite systems for navigation and international television broadcasting. In 1996, she founded United Therapeutics, which sells FDA-approved pills to help people with pulmonary arterial hypertension. The company also runs a pig 'pharm' in Blacksburg, Virginia, and is the world's largest cloner of pigs.
TERASEM MOVEMENT FOUNDATION: Martine and Bina Rothblatt founded the Terasem Movement Foundation in 2004 in Vermont. Its mission is to promote the “geoethical” use of nanotechnology for human life extension. The foundation conducts “educational programs and supports scientific research and development in the areas of cryogenics, biotechnology and cyber consciousness.” The foundation has not engaged in significant grantmaking over the past five years, but its website is still active.
Some of the foundation’s projects include Lifenaut.com, “an online networking and personal data storage service designed to test the hypothesis that conscious analogs of people can be brought to life based on sufficiently detailed mindfile data.” Lifenaut enables people to store and share information such as text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, and other material. One of the foundation’s premises is that nanotechnology and cyber consciousness needs to be developed consistently with “full respect for diversity and unity so that the potential for greatly extending human life and relieving human suffering can be realized.”
The foundation also bankrolled media. Terasem Media and Films completed a feature-length sci-fi movie thriller called 2B:The Era Flesh is Over, which had its international premiere at the Fantastic Planet Festival Sydney, Australia, and its American premiere at the Woodstock International Film Festival.
LOOKING FORWARD: The status of the Terasem Movement Foundation is unclear, and it has not made a significant number of grants or donations in several years.
