A new Dean’s Distinguished Professor award to support an outstanding faculty member at Boise State University has been established by Duane and Lori Stueckle of Boise.

The new award will provide annual supplemental salary in the five-figure range for an existing faculty member in the Department of Biology who is involved in research and teaching in areas with biomedical application, particularly in developmental biology, molecular biology, genomics, proteomics and cell biology.

“This is very exciting for Boise State, and we would like to thank Duane and Lori Stueckle for their vision and generosity,” said Phil Eastman, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Boise State has a very strong and growing molecular biology program, and this new Distinguished Professor award will provide momentum and resources that will help us to continue to move forward.”

Duane Stueckle, a longtime Boise businessman and entrepreneur, said he has long had a special interest in the study of genes and proteins and the Human Genome Project, and believed that their applications could someday lead to breakthroughs that could relieve human suffering and disease.

“I’d had this idea of providing some support in this area for a long time, but I figured I’d have to go to MIT or Harvard to do it. Then I found out what was going on right here at Boise State, and I decided, why go across the country when there are great things happening in my own back yard,” Stueckle said.

Boise State has made impressive strides as a metropolitan research university, Stueckle added. “I like to help at the start of things. Providing funds to keep talented faculty at Boise State falls in exactly with what I like to do.”

Boise State scientists are involved in a number of funded research projects with biomedical applications, including studies involving the structure of cartilage, breast cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, chemotherapeutic drugs, vaccine development, tissue engineering for orthopedic repair, asthma and other areas. Much of this research involves understanding processes on a molecular level, including studies involving the extracellular matrix, the multi-molecular material that surrounds cells and comprises a scaffold on which tissues are organized.

The inaugural recipient of the Dean’s Distinguished Professor award will be announced prior to the start of the fall semester, university officials said. The award is the first of its kind in the College of Arts and Sciences.

This is the second major gift the Stueckles have made to Boise State in the past year. The couple, who are longtime supporters of the university, were also among the 11 lead supporters who stepped forward to contribute an initial $7 million toward the $9.5 million Indoor Multi-Purpose Athletic Practice Facility that is currently under construction.