The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT is a neuroscience research institute committed to improving human welfare and advancing communications. Led by a team of world-renowned, multi-disciplinary neuroscientists, it conducts integrated research in three broad themes - perception, cognition, and action - using systems and computational neuroscience, brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience, and molecular biology and genetics.

The McGovern Institute was established in February 2000 by a gift from Lore Harp McGovern and Pat McGovern expected to total approximately $350 million, the largest gift ever received by MIT.

We currently have:

• 11 Principal Investigators who conduct systems neuroscience research on all levels of the brain pertaining to perception, cognition, and action with the goal of improving the understanding and treatment of human brain diseases and mental illness
• 3 Associate Members who add special expertise, including the use and development of new technologies to advance neuroscience research
• More than 40 Postdoctoral Associates and Fellows and about 10 Research Scientists are conducting advanced research in faculty laboratories.
• Approximately 55 graduate students are earning degrees while working with McGovern Institute faculty, and many MIT undergraduate students are also involved in research projects.

All McGovern Institute faculty members hold dual appointments in departments at MIT.

Major Faculty Awards and Honors

• 1 Nobel Laureate: Robert Horvitz
• 1 National Medal of Science honoree: Ann Graybiel
• 5 National Academy of Sciences Members: Emilio Bizzi, Robert Desimone, Ann Graybiel, Robert Horvitz, Nancy Kanwisher
• 1 HHMI Investigator: Robert Horvitz
• 1 MIT Institute Professor: Emilio Bizzi
• 3 Institute of Medicine Members: Emilio Bizzi, Ann Graybiel, Robert Horvitz
• 4 AAAS Fellows: Emilio Bizzi, Robert Desimone, Ann Graybiel, Tomaso Poggio

Facility

The McGovern Institute occupies 140,000 square feet within the new Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus at 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The McGovern Institute facility houses laboratories for its principal investigators and associate members.

It is also home to the Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute.

Other occupants of the complex are MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT.

Each of these entities surrounds a central atrium that facilitates communication among faculty and students.

The complex was completed in 2005. The architectural design for the entire project was a collaborative effort of Boston-based Goody, Clancy & Associates, and Charles Correa Associates of Bombay, India.

The facility is located in Kendall Square, a "cauldron" of science and biotechnology research in both academic and industry settings.

Image gallery of our building

"The beautiful new building, with its mixture of bold limestone facade and plate glass, will be the working place of 16 investigators and numerous students and fellows. ...All of us thank the McGoverns and MIT for creating the future through the building of the structure."
— Robert Desimone