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Pat and Jim Poitras decided to make their generous gift to establish the Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research, very shortly after hearing Robert Desimone address a meeting of the McGovern Institute’s Leadership Board in November 2006. There, Desimone described a long-range plan for the future of the Institute and the creation of a new initiative for brain disease and mental illness.

We were pleased with this newly stated purpose to bring basic research into practice. We had decided many years ago that our philanthropic efforts would be directed towards this psychiatric research. We could not have imagined then that this perfect synergy between research at MIT’s McGovern Institute and our own philanthropic goals would develop,” recalls Jim Poitras, a 1963 MIT alumnus with a degree in electrical engineering.

After hearing Bob, we talked with Pat and Lore McGovern over dinner, continues Pat, and realized we could help make this happen faster than even they had hoped. We are very hopeful for the future. The Poitras’s have committed $20 million to support research on major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders at the center.

When friends ask why they are contributing to MIT rather than to a new research facility near their Orlando home, Jim tells them: The best bang for the buck is at MIT, right here, right now.

After graduating from MIT, Jim worked in research, computer programming, and administration at Massachusetts General Hospital until 1979. For 22 years, he headed the family’s medical products manufacturing business, Highland Laboratories, Inc., based in Ashland, MA. Jim retired in 2006 as President and CEO of the company, and he continues to manage other family investments.

Pat’s career was in social work, and she is president of the Poitras Charitable Foundation. Both are members of the McGovern Institute Leadership Board. They are longstanding donors to MIT and have previously endowed the James W. and Patricia T. Poitras Professorship Fund in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in the field of psychiatric research.

In addition to their gifts to MIT, Pat and Jim fund community outreach programs for the mentally ill. Jim recalls that his father, Edward J. Poitras ’28, credited his success to what MIT gave him a full scholarship, including train fare for his daily commute. He reciprocated generously throughout his life and encouraged me to give back to MIT, too. But our philanthropic focus was psychiatry and MIT wasn’t doing much psychiatric research. Now, with the McGovern Institute, that problem is resolved.

Ann Graybiel studies the basal ganglia, forebrain structures that are profoundly important for normal brain function but are also implicated in Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and addiction.

Tomaso Poggio develops computational models of brain function in order to understand human intelligence and to build intelligent machines that can mimic human performance. Learn more about Tomaso Poggio here.

Alan Jasanoff is developing a new generation of brain imaging technologies to study the neural mechanisms of behavior. In this video press release, Jasanoff discusses his latest findings published in Nature Biotechnology on February 28, 2010. In this study, Jasanoff’s team designed a new MRI sensor that responds to the neurotransmitter dopamine, an achievement that may significantly improve the specificity and resolution of future brain imaging procedures.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized our understanding of the human brain, but the method is now approaching the limit of its capabilities. Alan Jasanoff hopes to break through this limit and to develop new technologies for imaging the molecular and cellular phenomena that underlie brain function.

Sensing the motives and feelings of others is a natural talent for humans. But how do we do it? Here, Rebecca Saxe shares fascinating lab work that uncovers how the brain thinks about other peoples’ thoughts — and judges their actions.

Doris and Donald Berkey ’42, SM ’43, of Naples, Florida, have donated $3 million to endow an MIT Professorship in neuroscience, with Robert Desimone, Director of the McGovern Institute, as the first incumbent.

Our decision to endow this chair reflects our belief that a better understanding of the brain will help to prevent some of the suffering caused by psychiatric disease, the Berkeys say. “We are delighted to learn that Bob Desimone and the McGovern Institute share this goal.”

For Don Berkey, attending MIT was a childhood dream come true. At MIT he studied mechanical engineering at both the undergraduate and masters levels. “My mind was mechanical and I wanted to understand how things work,” he explains. After receiving his SM in 1943, he joined General Electric (GE) to work on jet engines during the second world war. He rose through the managerial ranks, becoming General Manager of the Jet Engines Department and he holds several patents in jet engine design, including the high by-pass turbine engine. GE had won a $465 million military contract to design a more efficient engine for the C5A, a large military transport plane that had long-range requirements. “Our engine was 30% more fuel efficient,” he says, “and it’s the basic design for all the high-bypass jet engines that you see today with their big fans enclosed on the wings.”

For his last seven years at GE, Don headed the Energy Systems and Technical Division as Vice President, working to advance technologies for solar energy, coal, nuclear, and other forms of energy during President Carter’s “war on energy” years. When that focus receded during the Reagan presidency, Berkey retired in 1982 at the age of 62. Don and Doris divided their time between Cape Cod and Florida, and have taken up golfing, boating, and competitive duplicate bridge. They keep abreast of technology developments by reading MIT’s Technology Review and other publications.

“In thinking about how we could focus our philanthropy,” explains Don, “we decided to support research related to mental illness because our family, like so many others, has been touched by these issues. We went to the internet to learn about research in this area, and we were ultimately led to the McGovern Institute. In speaking with Bob Desimone, we were impressed by his experience in mental health research and by his accomplishments at the National Institute of Mental Health. We were also encouraged by the direction he has been leading the McGovern Institute and, in particular, by the focus of the new Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research.”

Finally, after speaking with MIT’s Provost, Rafael Reif, the Berkeys decided to create the Don and Doris Berkey Professorship naming Desimone as the first incumbent.

“I agreed that Bob Desimone was the perfect choice for this professorship given his long track record of achievements in basic neuroscience research that is beginning to have clinical relevance to psychiatric disorders,” says Reif.

Desimone feels profoundly grateful for the Berkey’s generosity. “This professorship will support my ongoing efforts to nurture a new generation of neuroscientists dedicated to linking basic research to improving the lives of people struggling with psychiatric disorders.”