Building a biology legacy

The Lasry family name is very familiar to the Clark community.

The Cathy ’83 and Marc ’81 Lasry Center for Bioscience is the campus cornerstone for the study of biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and environmental science at Clark. The 50,000-square-foot building on Maywood Street houses classrooms, laboratories, conference rooms, lounge spaces, and faculty offices, as well as an impressive array of equipment that helps advance research and teaching capabilities.

The building, which opened in 2005, was a gift from Marc and Cathy, who had asked then-provost David Angel “what Clark needs to keep moving to the next level,” Marc recalls. The answer was a bioscience center. Though Marc, a history major during his student days, and Cathy, an English major, had not been engaged in the sciences during their Clark careers, they didn’t hesitate to fund construction of one of Clark’s most distinctive structures.

“We have our own interests, but Cathy’s view was, ‘If this is what Clark needs, then this is what we’ll do,’” Marc says. “I agreed.”

Read a profile of Marc Lasry ’81 in the winter/spring 2022 issue of Clark magazine

The center is also a model of green design and construction, earning LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification under the Green Building Rating System.

Across campus, the Lasrys also made substantial donations to renovate and expand the elegant turn-of-the-century villa that houses the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, including the Rose Library. The Cohen-Lasry House is home to the uniquely rich and renowned undergraduate and doctoral programs that provide training in Holocaust history, the Armenian Genocide, and other genocides perpetrated around the globe.