A married couple who made their fortune in publishing and high technology have pledged an estimated $350-million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for brain research.
Patrick J. McGovern Jr., the founder and chairman of International Data Group, in Boston, and Lore Harp McGovern, a consultant to several high-technology businesses, announced last week that they will donate the amount over the next 20 years to create the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.
The new institute’s mission is to explore how people learn and communicate. Scientists will conduct research in bioengineering, cognitive sciences, genetics, molecular neurobiology, and neuroscience.
The donation is the biggest ever made directly to a higher-education institution since 1967, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, and concludes a three-year search by the McGoverns, who invited six other universities to compete for the gift.
The couple said they would give $5-million each year to M.I.T. for 20 years, with the amount of each payment adjusted to keep pace with an index that measures the rising cost of higher education. After 20 years the McGoverns will make a final payment equal to 20 times the amount of their 20th payment.
If the Higher Education Price Index holds at its current rate, 4 percent, the total donation would be $350-million. A 5-percent rate would equal a gift of $415-million.
Mr. McGovern graduated from M.I.T. in 1959 with a major in life sciences. He wrote his thesis on the nervous system of amphibians.
His company publishes books and periodicals for the computer industry, including the “For Dummies” series and the magazine PC World. International Data Group also publishes the Cliffs Notes study guides and provides consulting services to the information-technology industry.
The company earned $2.56-billion last year.
Mrs. Harp McGovern has served for the past three years as chairman of the Board of Associates at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, which is affiliated with M.I.T. She co-founded Vector Graphics in 1976 and is former president of the Good Morning Teacher! Publishing Company.
Before choosing M.I.T., the McGoverns had considered the California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Stanford University, and the Universities of California at Berkeley, San Diego, and San Francisco.
M.I.T. won on merit, said Mr. McGovern, citing the institution’s commitment to the neurosciences and its openness to interdisciplinary collaboration.
As the couple planned their gift, Mr. McGovern said, they kept hearing two pieces of advice: concentrate on one thing that makes a lasting impression, and give while relatively young. Mr. McGovern is 62 years old and his wife is 55.
“If there’s any meaning to our donation, it’s to give as early as is practical,” he said. “It highlights the opportunity that is available to all these young entrepreneurs that have started Internet companies and accumulated $40- or $50-billion.”
As to his and his wife’s new title of biggest-ever donors to a university, he said:
“I would hope it would only last a few weeks.”