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Lore Harp McGovern Q&A
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Lore Harp McGovern
Q & A
Q.1. This investment may surprise people who have followed the growth of IDG. As the largest high tech media company, why did you invest in neuroscience and not computers?
A.1. I have been involved in the technology field since the early '70s and was co-founder of Vector Graphic in 1976, one of the earliest PC companies. It was amazing to see how, what was then compared to today, much simpler technology and yet how it empowered people in their activities. We sold our computers to everyone who had a need to manage large data and help provide efficiency. Twenty-five years ago, wireless communication, the Internet, and digitized images was the stuff of science fiction, as was gene splicing, functional MRI and the Human Genome Project. Today computers play a major role, and are an integral part of everyday life and indispensable tool in research. The brain has held great fascination for me, because it is still the largely unexplored mystery from where all advances spring. To be able to play a small role in the drama of discovery in the field of neuroscience and to give scientists the venue to decipher the most intricate machination of the brain is incredibly stimulating and exciting to me. I am thankful that the common dream Pat and I share can be actualized.
Q.2. What inspired - or continues to inspire - your own interest Brain Research? When did you become interested in brain research? Who are the particular people or teachers, authors, researchers, whose work or whose vision has inspired your interest?
A.2. As a child I always wanted to know if you could touch thought, if thought had a physical presence. I remember how awed I was when my parents took me to the Science Museum and I saw a brain floating in formaldehyde, a simple gray mass that looked terribly uncomfortable all twisted, folded and stuck together, nothing like the dangling skeleton I had admired earlier. And I wondered how a poet using that unattractive thing could formulate such beautiful words, or how a composer could put notes to paper that would evoke such deep emotions when executed on a violin or other instruments. How could there be a mathematical genius next to the person who could not comprehend simple algebra. I wanted to know what was going on in this bicameral thing. Over the years, I met scientists involved in the field of neuroscience and was humbled by their driven focus concentrating on one small area of the brain and collaborating with their colleagues who specialized in others racing to one common goal to better understand the human condition and apply what has been learned to benefit all.
Q.3. Is there any area within the broad interdisciplinary field of brain research that you find most compelling? Intriguing? Troubling?
A.3. I want to understand, for example, the underlying causes of learning disabilities, the inability to communicate, what causes prejudice. Through collaboration with clinical psychologists, cognitive scientists, molecular biologists, and engineers who employ computer modeling techniques, we as a human race have a chance to survive on this ever crowded planet.
Q.4. Brain research is a very long-term project. What is your vision for this research that may yield in, say, 25 years? 50 years? What kind of difference may this research make in people's lives?
A.4. I have been Chairman of the Board of Associates of the Whitehead Institute for the last three years, a fabulous place for scientific discovery based on the fundamental dream of Jack Whitehead: Give a scientist a venue to do innovative research unencumbered by financial restraints and the politics of institutions and his dream has been actualized. Today, after almost 20 years, the Whitehead is one of the premier research institutes in the world that conducts leading edge research resulting in discoveries that will benefit humankind in a real way. It is my hope that within our lifetime we will be able to proudly point at discoveries made at the MIBR, because the environment and the freedom to explore was the impetus for discovery. Being able to attract the best and brightest scientists from around the world, is key to making those discoveries. We can only provide the dream, but it is the scientists under the stewardship of the director who need to set the tone and vision for the research.
Q.5. Are there ongoing philosophical questions that you have considered important during your lives and careers?
A.5. It is difficult to think of life as finite and even more difficult to start paying attention to your legacy because in your mind you still have so much time and haven't begun to do what you really want to do! When it is all done, I hope that I can answer two questions well. How happy did I make the people around me, and what did I do to build value that had meaning not just to me, but would benefit others. I feel pretty comfortable about the first part of my answer, but I am still struggling with the second. I have always tried to get into people's heads, to understand where they are coming from and what motivates them. There are a lot of "what if then" type of questions. What happened in the heads of a Hitler or Stalin or Einstein or Sister Teresa? Do we perceive reality or is it a delusion? I guess it is to that end that I am elated about the possibility to be able to get to some of those answers through the MIBR and that what the Institute will provide has not only meaning to me, but potentially can benefit humankind. And that is thrilling!
Q.6. Has your study and reflection on brain sciences stimulated new questions or made you newly curious about human intelligence and capabilities? What are these?
A.6. The process of setting up the MIBR has been an incredible journey, one that not only introduced me to extraordinary scientists, but has aroused an enormous appetite to learn more about every aspect of the brain, and I was delighted to see that some of the old beliefs have been negated, i.e., older people (like us!) can learn new things and that new brain cells are being formed. I am also delighted that it has been confirmed that there is a direct correlation between early stimulation of the brain and intelligence of the child. Unless there is a material flaw in the brain, each child has the ability to be intelligent. What a tremendous gift so often thrown away. What an opportunity at the same time.
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