Established July 1999

The James Graham Brown Foundation created this endowed chair in the School of Medicine as part of the bicentennial campaign. The state's Research Challenge Trust Fund doubled the gift.

The endowment supports the position of director of the Brown Cancer Center, whose role is to recruit highly qualified new research faculty to the center and to significantly increase the center's federal research funding.

The Brown Foundation was incorporated in 1954 from the assets of Louisville businessman and philanthropist James Graham Brown.

In 2002 the foundation pledged the largest single gift in the university's history -- $15 million to support cancer research and patient care. The foundation pledged an additional $15 million in 2004 to the cancer center’s Finding Answers to Cancer campaign.