A $7 million gift will fund a new Caltech lab that uses satellite imaging and artificial intelligence to help policymakers weigh the costs of development against environmental protection.

The California Institute of Technology announced Wednesday, Oct. 21, that the WHH Foundation, a San Marino-based private family foundation, is funding the Policy and Environmental Research on Markets, Institutions, and Trade lab. The PERMIT lab will operate for 10 years inside Caltech's Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Two assistant professors of economics will co-lead the effort. Prakash Mishra and Hannah Druckenmiller, a William H. Hurt Scholar, plan to recruit graduate students, postdocs and researchers to tackle questions that blend economics, environmental measurement and policy design.

"The most exciting thing about the WHH gift is that it will allow us to invest in people over the long term," Druckenmiller said. "We can now support graduate students and postdocs for long enough to build the unique combination of skills in economics, policy, and environmental measurement that make a real impact on environmental policy."

The lab has two projects already underway. Druckenmiller is collaborating with Georgia Gkioxari, assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences and electrical engineering, to use AI to estimate the flood-protection value of wetlands across the country. Mishra is studying the hidden environmental costs of beef production, including water use, methane emissions and deforestation in Brazil.

Both co-leaders have existing partnerships with faculty in Caltech's engineering and geological sciences divisions and with groups at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages. They also work with the campus Resnick Sustainability Institute and the Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy.

The WHH Foundation was founded by the late William H. Hurt, a former Capital Group Companies executive and longtime friend of the institute. He and his wife previously endowed the William H. Hurt Scholars Program for early-career faculty. Alyson Sattler, the foundation's executive director, said the grant reflects the foundation's focus on climate resilience.

The gift is large for the foundation. Its median grant in tax year 2024 was $15,000.

Tracy Dennison, who leads the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, said the funding will help the PERMIT lab recruit and retain researchers. Mishra said he hopes lab alumni will eventually move into positions at universities, think tanks or government agencies, expanding the lab's network beyond Pasadena.