Among scientists around the world, Eli Broad’s name will forever be tied to the role the institute he founded played in helping the Boston and Cambridge area emerge from the global pandemic, and the foundation it provided for researchers who are seeking to identify and contain variants of the Covid-19 virus.
But Broad, who died April 30, also will be remembered by families, such as the Chakrabartis in Cambridge, for what the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has done on an individual level, bringing the intellectual clout of a major research institute to bear on a rare illness.
Along with his wife, Edythe, Broad provided the funding to launch the Broad Institute and poured more than $1 billion into the venture.
