Wyss gives Harvard $125 million

Wyss, who received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1965, is head of the Wyss Foundation, an environmental charity, according to The Harvard Crimson. He is the former chief executive of Synthes, a medical device company based in Switzerland. The donation is the largest individual gift in Harvard’s history, surpassing David Rockefeller’s $100 million gift in April to support the arts and international programs.

According to Harvard, the new institute will build on the existing Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering as a joint venture between Harvard’s engineering and medical schools. Its creation comes after a report released by the medical school this summer, which proposed a university-wide bioengineering initiative, the Crimson reported.

Wyss said in the statement that he is “humbled to have the opportunity to contribute ... to efforts that I firmly believe will change the future course of science and medicine.”

“Little did I dream when I began my career in engineering that we would reach a point where engineers and biologists would be using nature’s templates to create solutions to our medical and environmental challenges,” he said.