From its founding until his death in 1964, the Foundation was led by
William Myron Keck. From 1964 to 1995, it was led by W. M. Keck's son,
Howard B. Keck.
Robert Addison Day, W. M. Keck's grandson, became its president and chairman in 1995. He continued to serve as its chairman until his death in 2023. The foundation is led by Joseph Day and Stephen M. Keck. The Foundation provides grants in five broad areas: science and engineering research,
undergraduate science and engineering, medical research,
liberal arts, in
Southern California. Some of the more notable projects that have received funding from the Keck Foundation include: • 2017: The Keck Center for Science and Engineering, at
Chapman University, $21 million • 2015: The Keck Laboratory for Network Physiology at
Boston University, $1 million • The W. M. Keck Center for Language Study • Support for building of the Keck Observatory at
Pacific Lutheran University in
Tacoma, Washington • 1985, 1991: Construction of the
W. M. Keck Observatory at
Mauna Kea Observatory in
Hawaii, Keck I, Keck II, about $70 million for each •
Keck Institute for Space Studies, established in 2008, a joint institute of the
California Institute of Technology and the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory • 1999: Expansion of the
Keck School of Medicine at the
University of Southern California in
Los Angeles, California, $110 million • The W.M. Keck Building Center for
fMRI & the W.M. Keck Foundation Center for Ocean-Atmosphere Research at the
University of California, San Diego • Creation of the
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in
Claremont, California • Sponsor of the Keck Computer Science Lab at
Loyola Marymount University in
Los Angeles, California • The W.M. Keck Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at
University of California, Irvine • The WM Keck Center for 3D Innovation at
University of Texas at El Paso • The William M. Keck Building at the
California Institute of Technology • The Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics in
Washington D.C. • The Keck Science Center at
Pepperdine University • The
Keck Array, part of the
BICEP experiment (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) at the South Pole observatory. • W.M. Keck Earth Science and Metal Engineering Museum at the
Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, whose renovation the foundation funded, at the
University of Nevada, Reno • The Keck Theater at
Occidental College The Keck Foundation has been a long-time supporter of
public television in
Southern California, including underwriting the broadcast of
Sesame Street on
KCET since the 1970s. ==Research funding==