DATE: Thursday, October 16, 1997            TAG: 9710160526

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   37 lines

JONES INSTITUTE CREATES RESEARCH ENDOWMENTS

The Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School will set aside $3 million in endowments to reward and encourage research there.

A third of the money will establish two professorships for faculty with international reputations in reproductive medicine. One position will go to someone looking into basic science; the other, to someone who studies patient treatment.

The remaining $2 million will be used to help promising young researchers by supplementing money from grants, gifts, contracts and money from industry.

Up to five investigators will get these awards each year.

Some recipients may come from EVMS. In other cases the money will be used to lure top investigators from elsewhere.

``We are not making distinctions as to where we might find the best talent,'' institute president Gary D. Hodgen said in a prepared statement.

The endowment fund is the idea of Hodgen, a researcher whose work has led to many breakthroughs in the treatment of infertility and has made the Jones Institute a leader in reproductive medicine.

Hodgen said he hopes the endowments will continue to grow.

The Jones Institute Scholars and Professors Programs, as the new endowments will be called, were financed from several sources. The institute's fund-raising arm collected some of the money from private donors. The rest of the support came from profits from technology licensed by the institute, and from EVMS.

The first scholarship and professorship winners probably will be announced next summer. ILLUSTRATION: The endowment fund is the idea of Gary Hodgen, the

president of the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine.

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