--- title: "Physics Dept Gets Random Box Full of $180K in Untraceable $50s and $100s" description: "A box full of untraceable cash sat collecting dust in the unused office a New York City physics professor for months — and its contents were shocking." date: "2021-12-22" modified: "2021-12-22" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/physics-box-180k-anonymous-donation" categories: - "Physics" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "finance" - "higher education" - "physics" --- # Physics Dept Gets Random Box Full of $180K in Untraceable $50s and $100s ![A box full of untraceable cash sat collecting dust in the unused office a New York City physics professor for months — and its contents were shocking.]() *\Image: Getty/Futurism\* A box full of untraceable cash sat collecting dust in the unused office of a New York City physics professor for the better part of a year, with the intended recipient none the wiser. As [*The New York Times* reports](), this story straight out of a Christmas movie actually happened to Vinod Menon, the chairs of the Physics Department at the City College of New York in Harlem. Because he'd been teaching remotely since March 2020, Menon hadn't been back to his office since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and, as such, hadn't checked his mail in over a year by the start of this year's fall semester. It was a shock, Menon told the *Times*, when he opened the box — which was so heavy that it required $90 worth of postage — to find it filled with banded stacks of $50 and $100 bills totaling $180,000. According to a note left by the pseudonymous "Kyle Paisley" that was dated November 10, 2020, the donation was meant for needy physics students pay their tuitions. Paisley claimed they were a scientist and alumnus of City College's famed physics department. As the *Times* noted, that would put them in good company — the program has spawned three Nobel laureates including the pioneering nuclear physicist Robert Hofstadter, and hosted Albert Einstein for one of his first addresses given in the United States. Because of the peculiar nature of the donation, a search was convened to find Paisley and the cash was "treated like evidence," with the school going so far as to contact federal authorities to make sure the money wasn't from the mob or any other criminal enterprise. The cash was clean and had, per federal investigators, been withdrawn from banks around Maryland during the past several years. The return address was an extant house in Pensacola, Florida, but the person that lived there wasn't affiliated with anyone named Kyle Paisley nor City College, and the school determined that nobody by that name had ever attended the university. The money's fate hung in the balance until earlier this month, when the board of trustees for the City University of New York — the huge public university system of which City College was the founding school — voted formally to accept the donation in spite of its unusual method of delivery. City College's tuition is, compared to the outrageous sums charged at private and even some public universities, quite inexpensive, with undergraduate tuition running about $7,500 a year. Because of the size of the mysterious donation, Menon told the *Times* that $180,000 will cover two full scholarships per year for more than 10 years, which will likely carry some form of charity work so that students may "give back in some way." Anonymous donations aren't unheard of, but to do so in such a flashy way — and in the middle of a pandemic that screwed up universities so badly that the "regular, everyday package" in which it was sent went untouched for nearly nine months — has certainly caused a splash. It's unclear why anyone would take such pains to conceal their identity when donating to such a worthy cause, but then again, physicists aren't exactly known for their practicality. **READ MORE:** [A Box of Cash, a Secret Donor and a Big Lift for Some N.Y.C. Students]() \[*The New York Times*\] **More mysterious physics:** [*Scientists Claim to Entangle Entire Animal in Quantum State*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()