On April 22, International Data Group signed an agreement with Tsinghua University, according to which IDG will make a commitment of 10million dollars for establishing IDG/Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research at Tsinghua University. Besides, IDG along with IDG Capital Partners will set up IDG-China Fund and Harmony Fund for purpose of consistently funding the institute.
Mr. Patrick McGovern, the chairman of IDG and also the initiator of IDG/Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT (IMIBR-MIT) co-signed the agreement with Mr. Gu Binglin, Tsinghua’s President and Mr. Song Jun, the Vice President and General Secretary of Tsinghua University Education Fund.
Lore Harp McGovern--the co-founder of IMIBR-MIT, Robert Desimone—the Director of IMIBR-MIT, Mr. Hugo Shong-- Founding general partner of IDG General Partners, Dr. Shi Yigong-- Senior Vice Dean of School of Medicine and Presidnet of Life Science College of Tsinghua University, together with professors from Tsinghua oriented at neuroscience were present at the signing ceremony.
President Gu Binglin expressed his heartfelt thanks to the generous contribution from the Mcgoverns and IDG for establishing IDG/Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research at Tsinghua University. He hopes the two sides could gain fruitful results in years to come.
Mr. Mcgovern said in his speech that he is more than happy to sign the agreement on the occasion of Tsinghua University Centennial. The establishment of this institute marks a great advance in the course of “comprehensive understanding the human brain”which will cease to be a unattainable dream. He stressed that they believes this is one of the greatest achievements in 21st century and they are proud of their efforts in participating the process to realize this dream at an early date.
International Data Group (IDG) is the world‘s leading technology publishing, research, and event management company. Mr. Mcgovern the founder of IDG, has always committed himself to supporting the cause of education and scientific research, especially in the domain of brain science. In 2000, Mr. Mcgovern announced that he would make a contribution as much as 350million dollars to his alma mater, MIT for establishing a brain science institute. In January, 2008, with support from Mr. Hugo Shong, Medical School of Tsinghua University signed an agreement for academic exchanges with IMIBR-MIT and the two jointly held the “Mcgovern Institute Symposium-New Frontiers in Brain Research” in February. The Mcgoverns had paid two visits to Tsinghua, each in 2006 and 2008, to get themselves updated about Tsinghua’s progress in brain research.
With disciplinary comprehensiveness being its competitive edge, Tsinghua has formed a research group on a small scale in the domain of brain science which covers many subjects like neuro-biology, neuro engineering, artificial intelligence, cognitive science as well as clinical research on nervous system disorders. The current cooperation with IDG proves that Tsinghua is making a step forward in collaboration with world-famous corporations or eminent scientific research institutes. ?(Adapted by Shanshan An, based on the article from http://news.tsinghua.edu.cn )