Billionaire Mort Zuckerman Pledges $200 Million To Mental Health Research

The state of preventative mental health care in the U.S. has been thrust onto the national scene in recent days, after the monstrous murder of 27 people including 20 children in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. While it is not clear what motivated the lone gunman or from what disease he suffered, if any, few think he could have been right in his head.

Probably coincidentally, one of the country’s richest people announced today a gift that will attempt to come up with new therapies and potential cures for a range of mental health disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s but also autism, schizophrenia and mood disorders. New York real estate billionaire, Mortimer Zuckerman, LLD’11, has pledged $200 million to endow a Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University to be named after him.

Read full article: Forbes, December 17, 2012