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McNairs give Baylor College of Medicine $100 million to recruit world's top scientists, physicians

HOUSTON -- (September 12, 2007) -- Business and community leaders Robert and Janice McNair today announced a $100 million gift to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to recruit the best scientists and physician scientists from around the world as McNair Scholars.

The program will enable the College to recruit many McNair Scholars over the next decade. The first two scholars will be recruited before the end of 2008.

In appreciation of their gift, BCM President and CEO Dr. Peter G. Traber announced that the 35-acre site of the Baylor Clinic and Hospital will be named the McNair Campus of Baylor College of Medicine.

The gift from The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation was announced at a news conference today at BCM. McNair has been a member of the BCM Board of Trustees since 1994.

Intellectual capital

"Janice and I discussed what we might do that would have the most meaningful impact, and we decided that the most important thing is intellectual capital," said McNair, owner of the Houston Texans NFL franchise. "With intellectual capital, you can attract outstanding students to the medical school and you can attract capital for building programs if you have an outstanding faculty."

Four areas of focus have been identified for the first McNair Scholars - breast cancer, diabetes, pancreatic cancer and neurosciences, including mental health disorders, as well as the disciplines that are related to these areas. Additional areas of focus will be identified over the course of the program.

The McNairs have a special interest in these areas because of the experiences of family members.

"If it can be a team effort to cure these diseases, we'll make so much more progress and that's what we're after," said Janice McNair, a 15-year breast cancer survivor.

Accelerate research initiatives

The gift, which is equal to the largest in BCM history, focuses on bringing in the top researchers and physician scientists. That effort will play a major role in the College's goal of transforming health care through translational research and personalized medicine.

"With this incredible gift from the McNair Foundation, Baylor College of Medicine will be able to recruit many stars to an already world-recognized team of scientists and physicians," said Traber. "We enthusiastically support Bob and Janice's focus on people being the key to advancing medicine. There is no doubt this program will accelerate research initiatives that will become more quickly available to patients."

The McNair Scholars will be new faculty members at BCM. The gift from the McNair Foundation will be used to identify, recruit and support the scholars for eight years. McNair Scholars will have lifetime use of the title.

In addition to naming the new healthcare campus the McNair Campus, the main boulevard through the campus will be named "McNair Boulevard." The street address for the Baylor Clinic and Hospital will be "One McNair Boulevard."

Community leadership

"This gift to Baylor College of Medicine is evidence of the community leadership that the McNairs have shown," said Robert H. Allen, chair of the BCM Board of Trustees. "The McNairs know what it takes to make a difference in advancing health care, and that is finding the best of the best and bringing them in to be part of this exceptional team."

The McNair Foundation was established in 1988 and has supported many community education programs. The McNair Scholars, a program of the foundation, began when the McNairs established undergraduate scholarship programs at their alma maters, the University of South Carolina and Columbia College in South Carolina. With the McNair Scholars at BCM, the program expands to include faculty members.

Commitment to collaboration

The McNairs described a McNair Scholar as someone who is already established as a star in the field, who will continue to rise in prominence from his or her discoveries and who is also committed to collaboration.

"That is one of the criteria when someone is selected as a McNair Scholar, that they would agree to share what they are working on so that others can benefit from it," McNair said.

"Bob and Janice have been solid supporters of Baylor, not only through this generous gift and other financial donations over the years, but also through their commitment to working for the vision the College has outlined," said Corbin J. Robertson Jr., BCM trustee and chair of the Best Minds Best Medicine campaign.

The McNairs have supported other BCM initiatives, such as neuroscience research, the M.D./Ph.D. McNair Scholars program and projects benefiting the Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine. The McNair Scholars program announced today is expected to result in wide-ranging benefits for the college and the community.

"We wanted to devise a program that would offer benefits to a number of different institutions and we felt that since Baylor collaborates with many institutions in the Texas Medical Center, they can share in the benefit that these scientists bring to Baylor," McNair said. "We hope it will help the institutions within the Texas Medical Center to become accustomed to working more closely together."

BCM has primary affiliations with six hospital partners – Texas Children's Hospital, Ben Taub General Hospital, the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital/Texas Heart Institute, The Menninger Clinic and Memorial Hermann/The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research. The College also has affiliated programs with The Methodist Hospital, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Hermann Hospital, as well as academic programs with Rice University, The University of Texas Health Science Center – Houston and the University of Houston.

In May, BCM leaders broke ground on the new Baylor Clinic and Hospital, set for completion in 2011 on the McNair Campus. The campus, located on Old Spanish Trail next to the DeBakey VA Medical Center, will include research facilities along with the outpatient and inpatient services of the Baylor Clinic and Hospital.