The Mind/Brain/Behavior (MBB) Interfaculty Initiative, one of five such projects being supported by The University Campaign, has received a substantial boost with the pledge of $1 million by Gordon Gund '61 and his wife Llura (Lulie) in honor of Gordon Gund's 35th Harvard College class reunion. "We wanted to do something for the campaign that would have impact in the near term, while also seeding a program that would eventually have support from other sources," Gund said.

The gift is the largest yet received by MBB. It will support curriculum development for MBB's undergraduate tracks, seed innovative faculty research, and integrate new information technology into the work of the initiative.

The MBB initiative aims to deepen understanding of how the mind and brain influence human behavior by bringing the neurosciences into a sustained, constructive, and critical dialogue with the social sciences and humanities. Each of the initiatives is designed to utilize the unique resources of Harvard's Faculties to address pressing societal and intellectual problems through collaborative interdisciplinary work across Schools. In addition to MBB, the others are Environment, Ethics and the Professions, Health Policy, and Schooling and Children.

Provost Albert Carnesale, who oversees the Interfaculty Initiatives, praised the foresight of the Gunds in underpinning MBB at a critical stage of its evolution: "Mind/Brain/Behavior is an exciting project that has progressed largely because of the enthusiasm and energy of faculty and staff involved in the initiative. The Gund gift will provide MBB with the resources needed to move it to the next level of activity."

President Neil L. Rudenstine said, "In its first few years, the MBB initiative has already stimulated some of the most exciting new interdisciplinary research taking place at Harvard, as well as significant innovations in the undergraduate curriculum. The Gunds' generosity reflects a deep commitment to advancing our understanding of human behavior, and an equally deep appreciation for the power of collaborative efforts across the University. We are extremely grateful for their leadership and support, which will be essential in allowing MBB to reach its next phase of development."

Initiative Considers Wide Range of Problems

Guided by the MBB steering committee and organized into a faculty fellowship and nine working groups, some 75 faculty members have, for the past two years, been tackling problems as disparate as intergroup violence and memory distortion, drug addiction and business failures.

The faculty participating in MBB are as diverse in their backgrounds and interests as the issues they are considering. Michael C. Jensen, Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, is, for example, applying interpretations of the "fight or flight" response drawn from neuroscience to understand the irrational behavior of managers in failing companies.

Meanwhile, Professor of Psychology Stephen Kosslyn and Professor of English and American Literature Elaine Scarry are designing experiments using new imaging tools to observe which parts of the brain are active when a person is imagining an object versus actually looking at it.

The MBB project's efforts have been further bolstered by the recent announcement of the forming of an advisory committee for the initiative, to be chaired by James R. Houghton '58, former CEO of Corning, Inc. and a member of the Harvard Corporation.

Gift Will Be Applied to Key Areas

Since its inception, MBB has focused on three main components: curriculum development, research, and faculty development. While some funds are also being directed toward information technology to facilitate collaboration, the Gund gift will be allocated primarily to the first two areas. In the words of Jerome Kagan, Daniel and Amy Starch Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and MBB's director: "The Gunds are launching two of the three critical components of MBB, and we are exceedingly grateful for their support at this key moment in the project's history."

A commitment to undergraduate education at Harvard College has been integral to the initiative from the beginning. While MBB offers no field of concentration of its own, students can pursue one of four MBB "tracks" within the fields of biology, computer science, history and science, or psychology. Response to MBB from undergraduates in the single year that its tracks have been available has been impressive, with close to 100 students currently enrolled.

About half of the Gund gift will be allocated to curriculum development for undergraduates, thereby funding this critical area for several years. In the words of Anne Harrington, professor of the history of science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and associate director of the Mind/Brain/Behavior initiative, "It is very exciting and gratifying to be given such a vote of confidence for our efforts to translate the ideals of MBB into new kinds of courses and programs for undergraduates. They bring a wonderful passion and productive curiosity to the interdisciplinary learning process, and the investment we make in them enriches everyone involved."

Truly innovative and daring research is equally important but problematic to finance through normal channels, according to Gerald D. Fischbach, Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology at the Medical School, and chair of the MBB steering committee: "Traditional funding sources, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or National Science Foundation (NSF), often require preliminary data from which the research questions to be funded are derived. Some of our most exciting projects need seed money to bring them to that stage, and the Gund gift will allow that to happen."

The MBB initiative is also working to develop a model for how learning and teaching can most effectively be organized in the context of new communications technologies such as the Internet and World Wide Web. Rather than creating a physical center to house the initiative, thereby taking faculty away from their home disciplines, MBB has opted for a "virtual center," where communications will be enhanced by exploiting information technology. The final portion of the Gund gift will be used to foster additional work on this collaborative effort.

Donors Intrigued with Possibilities of MBB

Gordon and Lulie Gund have been interested in the functioning of the brain and mind at least partly because of his own personal journey following graduation from Harvard -- Gordon Gund has been blind since 1970. Gund, who lived in Winthrop House as an undergraduate, began progressively losing his sight in his late 20s because of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative disease of the retina with no known cure.

"My own experience had a lot to do with MBB being intriguing for me," said Gund. "I've been fascinated with how my other senses and my memory have adjusted to the loss of sight."

The Gunds have been active in the search for a cure. In 1971, they co-founded the Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation, now known as The Foundation Fighting Blindness, which is seeking treatments and cures for retinal degenerations through research. In the early 1970s, The Foundation Fighting Blindness initiated and now continues to support the first multidisciplinary laboratory for the study of retinal degenerations -- the Berman-Gund Lab -- a Harvard University laboratory housed at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. According to Gund, "Our foundation was among the first to support a multidisciplinary approach to the understanding of retinal degenerative diseases, and I saw how much good work can come from that way of thinking."

Gund, chairman and CEO of Gund Investment Corporation, has been extremely successful as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, and he considers the commitment to MBB as an extension of the spirit that propels successful ventures in the profit-making sector: "Beyond its direct effects, the initiative can bring people at Harvard together in ways that don't generally happen."