La Jolla
Two new endowed professorships at the UC San Diego School of Medicine were approved Friday by the University of California Board of Regents meeting in Los Angeles.
They are the W.R. Persons Chair in Reproductive Medicine and the Florence Seeley Riford Chair in Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Research.
Persons, president and chairman of the board of Emerson Electric Co. of St. Louis, provided $100,000 toward establishment of the professorship named for him. Persons has been active in a wide range of philanthropic activities for 30 years.
Dr. Robert Resnik, chairman of the school’s department of reproductive medicine, said the new position will allow more research in areas including infertility and high-risk pregnancy.
Riford donated $500,000 to fund the AIDS research chair. UCSD is one of 12 university research centers nationwide working on aspects of the deadly virus.
Past contributions to the UCSD School of Medicine by Riford include a $1-million endowment for the Florence Riford Chair of Alzheimer’s Disease Research, $100,000 to set up an osteoporosis clinic, and $1.5 million in charitable trusts for various other medical school programs.
Search committees will be appointed to supervise the selection of professors for the new positions.
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