By Maureen Martino
October 8, 2008 — 11:32am ET

In the largest individual gift Harvard University has ever received, billionaire alumni Hansjörg Wyss has donated $125 million for the establishment of a biological engineering institute. Wyss, a Harvard Business School graduate, headed up the Swiss device maker Synthes. The Wyss Institute will bring together experimentalists, theoreticians and clinicians with expertise in engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, robotics, medicine and surgery from Harvard’s Schools and affiliated hospitals, as well as from neighboring universities.

“The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering will form the bedrock for Harvard’s emerging efforts in this critical area and will affect research, teaching, and the training of future leaders in this field… This gift underscores Harvard’s ability to lead and to make very significant contributions in a field that is of increasing importance to scientists in a number of areas, and to science more generally,” Harvard President, Drew Faust, said in a statement.

– see this release

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