Melanie Pong Salata
Melanie Pong Salata is a Trustee of the Salata Family Foundation. Melanie and her husband Jean support numerous charitable and educational organizations around the world with a focus on the arts, education, disadvantaged youth, and the environment. She received her MA in Art History from Williams in 1993 and advocates for arts education, especially for underprivileged children. The Salatas sit on the Serpentine Gallery Council in the United Kingdom and support Bloom Academy in Hong Kong. In 2022, the Salatas established The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, which brings together all of Harvard’s university-wide resources to address the climate crisis. The Institute aims to achieve this through scientific and intellectual leadership, by engaging with key stakeholders and decision-makers in government, and by educating and inspiring the leaders of tomorrow. Forbes Asia included the Salatas in its 2022 Heroes of Philanthropy list. Melanie received a BA in French from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988.
The Salata Institute
The Salata Institute supports interdisciplinary research that leads to real-world action, including high-risk/high-reward projects by researchers already working in the climate area and new endeavors that make it easier for Harvard scholars, who have not worked on climate problems, to do so. Faculty interested in the Climate Research Clusters program should note an upcoming deadline for concepts on April 1, 2024.