The $125 Million Man

Bioengineering at Harvard is about to take off. In late September, Hansjörg Wyss donated $125 million to Harvard to found the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Topping the $100 million for international programs and the arts that Harvard received last April from David Rockefeller ’36, this gift is the largest donation in Harvard’s long—and wealthy—history. The Harvard community should be thankful both for Wyss’ generous donation and for the research it will fund.

As a combined project between the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Medical School, the Wyss Institute will sit prominently a major nexus in the science world: bioengineering. One of the fastest growing majors in the United States, bioengineering represents a logical interdisciplinary trend that science—and academia in general—has taken in the last decade or so. The fusion of neuroscience and economics has produced the behavioral theories like “moral hazard,” which so many journalists cite in today’s newspapers. The founding of the Broad Institute at Harvard and MIT in 2004 has spurred scientists on the cutting edge of biology and technology to collaborate on developing genomic medicine. Even the undergraduate Life Sciences curriculum spans five departments, taught by “interdisciplinary teams of faculty [to] address topics in the context of larger biological questions.” At the Wyss Institute, there is no doubt that this interdisciplinary “bioengineering of the future,” as Provost Steven E. Hyman called it, will bring major benefits to mankind.

Fortunately, Mr. Wyss has the foresight—and the funds—to finance this initiative. Harvard, like most research universities, depends on federal funding to conduct research. In 2007, Harvard received $329 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest source of federal funding for research. Over the past eight years, the Bush administration has repeatedly tightened the purse strings of the NIH; today only one in every four grant application is funded.

Federal budget constraints will continue to tighten in the next few years, even if the credit markets begin to thaw. As the stock market continues to fall and central banks race to cut interest rates, the future of all institutions, especially nonprofits, is hazy. Because of this, Harvard needs philanthropy—particularly for scientific research—now more than ever. Donations are crucial for the development of higher education and the pursuit of scientific knowledge, as the world continues the struggle against disease and poverty.

With the pressures of undergraduate life, it is sometimes hard to recognize the unseen actors that sustain Harvard. When an alumnus bestows so much on the university, it cannot go unrecognized. Because of this charity, researchers, students, and, eventually, people everywhere will experience the benefits that scientific collaboration on such a large scale can offer. All we can say in return is, thank you.