A Little Rock couple with close ties to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has pledged $2 million to the state's health sciences university, officials announced Thursday.
A $1 million pledge will create the Michael and Paula Jennings Endowed Chair in Physiology in the UAMS College of Medicine's Department of Physiology and Cell Biology.
An additional $1 million will support the Dr. Michael and Paula Jennings Distinguished Scholarship in the College of Medicine.
An endowed chair helps a faculty member fund teaching, research and/or service activities.
The holder of the Michael and Paula Jennings Endowed Chair in Physiology will be a Department of Physiology and Cell Biology faculty member who is selected by the chair of the department and approved by the dean of the College of Medicine.
The Dr. Michael and Paula Jennings Distinguished Scholarship, originally established in 2018, will be renamed the Dr. Michael Jennings and Paula Jennings Chancellor's Scholarship when the pledged gift raises the endowed level to $1 million, according to the university.
A student entering his or her third year in the College of Medicine is eligible. The recipient is chosen based on financial need and experience or an interest in medical or health-related research, as determined by the College of Medicine Scholarship Committee.
Michael Jennings, 75, who was raised in northeastern Ohio, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in physics in 1970. He received a doctorate in biophysics from Harvard University in 1976. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany.
Before joining UAMS, he worked as an assistant professor and associate professor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. In 1987, he accepted a position as professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
In 1995, Jennings joined UAMS. He was the chairperson of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, a position he held for 25 years, during which he directed a National Institutes of Health-funded research program in cell membrane physiology.
He continues to teach medical and graduate students. In addition to his role as a professor, he served as interim dean of the Graduate School, executive associate dean for Basic Sciences in the College of Medicine and held the Chair in Sciences Basic to Medicine from 2012 to 2017.
Paula Jennings, 75, who was raised in Swampscott, Massachusetts, received a bachelor's degree in sociology from Simmons College in Boston and a master's degree in educational counseling from Boston College.
She worked in various administrative roles at Harvard Medical School, where she and Michael Jennings met, as well as at the Max Planck Institute and the University of Iowa.
At the University of Texas Medical Branch, she coordinated an intramural faculty research grant program.
Paula Jennings is a member of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Auxiliary and has served on its board for more than 25 years as its magazine editor and secretary. She has served on the Cancer Institute Auxiliary's Cooks Tour and Partners Card fundraising committee and currently serves on its grant awards committee.