Inside Iowa State

Feb. 13, 2009

Foundation matches Battelle challenge to create four new academic chairs

by Dave Gieseke, ISU Foundation Communications

Four new endowed faculty positions have been established at Iowa State as part of the Battelle Challenge instituted by the State of Iowa.

In 2006, Iowa State received a $3.69 million appropriation through the Iowa Department of Economic Development as part of an effort to enhance the state's biosciences, information technology and advanced manufacturing industries. Strategies were recommended by the Battelle Memorial Institute's Technology Partnership Practice.

As part of that appropriation, $2 million was set aside to help establish four new positions at Iowa State at $500,000 each. An additional $4 million ($1 million each) was raised by the Iowa State University Foundation to endow the four faculty positions.

Each recipient of a Battelle Endowment Challenge position recruited to the Iowa State campus will bring with him or her a business or near-term commercialization activity. The four positions are:

• Anderson Chair in Veterinary Medicine, made through an anonymous gift
• Kirby Gray Chair in the College of Engineering, established through a bequest of Kirby Gray, ISU class of 1945 in electrical engineering
• Schafer Chair in Biorenewable Energy Science and Technology, made possible through an estate gift from the late Charles Schafer, who graduated in 1911 with a degree in civil engineering
• W.E. Lloyd Chair in Toxicology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, a gift of Dr. W. Eugene and Linda Lloyd. Lloyd received his doctorate in veterinary medicine from ISU in 1949 and a Ph.D. in veterinary pathology in 1970.

Peter Nara, professor of biomedical services, is the W.E. Lloyd Chair. He was recruited from the National Cancer Institute, where he was a section chief. He is the co-founder and president of Biological Mimetics Inc., and IB12 in Iowa. Nara has discovered a new principal of immunity and technology that is "changing the game" in vaccine and monoclonal antibody discovery.

Searches are under way for the other three positions. These gifts were made during Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose, the university's $800 million fund-raising effort.

Gifts totaling $4 million to the ISU Foundation and $2 million from a targeted state appropriation have established four new faculty endowed chairs.