Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton is donating half of his share of the prize money to Water First.
The donation amounts to $350,000.
“We congratulate Dr. Hinton on receiving the Nobel Prize and we deeply appreciate his gift in support of education and water training programs in Indigenous communities in Canada,” said Water First’s executive director and founder John Millar.
According to Canadian Press, Hinton says he felt compelled to make a sizeable donation because he hears land acknowledgements at many events. While he thinks it’s good to remind people who first lived on the land they are on, he says such actions don’t do much to stop Indigenous kids, for example, from getting diarrhea from unsafe water sources.
The British-Canadian computer scientist, often called the godfather of AI, won the Nobel for physics with Princeton University researcher John Hopfield earlier this month.
The prize came with 11 million Swedish kronor (about C$1.45 million) the duo will split.
Water First is a Creemore based registered Canadian charity that works alongside Indigenous communities to address water challenges through education, training and meaningful collaboration. Since 2009, Water First has collaborated with over 90 Indigenous communities located in the lands now known as Canada while supporting Indigenous youth and adults to pursue careers in water science.
For the third year in a row Water First has been named a Top-100 Charity in Canada, receiving five stars by Charity Intelligence, which assesses charitable organizations for dedication, transparency, accountability, and results to help donors make informed decisions.
– With files from Canadian Press