Richard Webb seems most at ease standing beside the writing board on his office wall, drawing obscure subatomic electrical circuits that only he and a few other elite scientists understand.

In his career as a physicist, Webb helped computer pioneer IBM develop new patents.

Now in the academic world, he explores the frontiers of nanoscience for new theories that could one day pave the way for even smaller circuits and computer chips.

Webb says he would not have his office in Columbia today without South Carolina�s lottery-funded endowed chairs program, which has grown to $90 million to recruit academics like the University of South Carolina researcher.

�That�s what attracted me here,� he said, sketching diagrams of circuits he has imagined. �And it helped that (USC president) Andrew Sorensen flew down to see me twice.�

From the halls of the State House to the halls of academia, state leaders want the endowed chairs program to attract more researchers like Webb.

So far, eight researchers are being paid with endowed chairs money. The state is betting some of their research will spawn commercial uses that can be developed in the Palmetto State, employing South Carolinians.

The thinking goes like this: If the idea for the next miracle drug or the next generation automobile engine starts here, then it is likely to be manufactured, marketed and shipped from here. That means jobs.

�The idea is to attract superstars,� Sorensen said. �They, in turn, will attract others. Because of this program, we are getting people who would not give us a second look in the past.�

$90 MILLION AND GROWING

In three previous legislative budgets, lawmakers decided to spend $30 million a year for endowments.

Another $30 million is likely to pass the Legislature this year, bringing the total to $120 million.

The program began as an idea of retired steel company executive Samuel Tenenbaum, who shopped it to journalists, university leaders and political leaders. He said early, strong support from state Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Aiken, and former House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, was key.

�We are creating a critical mass of intelligence, of brain power, to be focused upon particular areas that may produce scientific breakthroughs and create jobs,� Tenenbaum said.

The law that created endowed chairs envisioned allocating $200 million for the program. Because the law requires matching money from federal or private sources, the program will total $400 million of investment in scientific research.

So far, the research areas of the approved endowed chair positions focus on nanotechnology, the study of extremely small particles; health sciences; fuel-cell development; and automobile manufacturing and safety.

BETTING ON THE AUTO INDUSTRY

At Clemson University, Tom Kurfess has his office decorated with engine parts, including the first prototype �sealed bearing� he worked on for the Timken Co. Timken is one of the auto industry companies involved at Clemson�s International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville.

Kurfess, 41, is the center�s director, having left a comfortable research job at Georgia Tech.

He holds the BMW Manufacturing Chair, a $10 million endowment created by a state grant and paired with an equal amount from the German automaker.

�Chairs of $1.5 million to $2 million are significant,� Kurfess said. �The size of this chair is important, but the other thing that has been driven home to me is the commitment from the state. It�s really exciting.�Kurfess is working to recruit top-tier researchers to fill two more endowed chairs at the center, plus all of its junior faculty members. Eventually, the Greenville campus will have about 60 candidates for master�s degrees and as many as 30 candidates for doctorates. There will be about 10 faculty members on the Greenville campus; faculty members from the Clemson campus will also teach in the program.

Kurfess, an irrepressible smile on his boyish face, seems pleased to have found the niche. And he seems to have been shaped education for the post by life, heritage and education. Both sets of his grandparents were European immigrants, and one pair came from southern Germany, the home of BMW. He even speaks the soft southern German dialect common around BMW�s Munich headquarters.

His grandfathers were mechanics; his father, sister and brother are engineers.

He said it was the state�s financial support and the BMW partnership that ensured he would take the post as the center�s director.

�BMW is planning for the long term,� Kurfess said. �They are making sure they have a good supply of engineers.�

Kurfess said the research into automobile manufacturing and safety done at the Greenville campus will be unique in North America and would not be possible without the endowed chairs program.

40 RESEARCH STARS

When the health sciences program is fully funded and in place as many as 40 world-class scientists and their cadres of researchers and technicians could work in South Carolina, Medical University of South Carolina president Ray Greenberg said. The economic impact could range from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in products and new jobs, he added.

The endowed chairs program already has spawned one major collaboration in health sciences that university leaders say probably would not have happened without the program.

Two of the state�s largest hospital systems, Greenville Hospital System and Columbia-based Palmetto Health, and two of the state�s largest universities, MUSC and USC, will pool resources and invest in health sciences research.

USC�s Webb is on a committee to recruit two more endowed-chair professors for brain-imaging research at centers in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville, studies expected to break new ground on the workings of the brain.

Peter J. McCausland, a USC alumnus who donated $1.75 million to the Columbia brain-imaging center that will carry his name, said it is unlikely he would have made such a large gift if it were not for the endowed chairs program. His gift will leverage an equal amount of state money, doubling the effect of his gift.

McCausland, chairman and chief executive officer of Airgas Inc., said the impact of the endowed chairs program on his willingness to give was �huge.�

MORE COLLABORATION, DEEPER EXPERTISE

The brain-imaging project has been operating for only two months but already has engaged 15 USC faculty members, said Gordon Baylis, director of the Statewide Brain Imaging Center for Economic Excellence. The project will use the resources of MUSC and its Charleston hospitals; Columbia�s Palmetto Health hospitals; the Greenville Hospital System; and USC�s research resources.

Sorensen said the brain-imaging program is a textbook case of how the endowed chairs program aims to marry public and private resources, encouraging collaboration between the state�s research and clinical health resources.

�A collaborative such as this is unprecedented in the history of our state,� Sorensen said.

You also can see that collaboration in the work of John Schaefer, a designer of computer-driven mannequins used to train doctors and medical technicians before they move on to operate on humans. The simulators breathe, make noises like people, have heartbeats and a skinlike covering.

Schaefer, recruited from Pittsburgh, said state support was key to his relocation to MUSC. His new Center for Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety will have operations in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville.

Each location could hire 150 or more people, based upon his experience in Pittsburgh, Schaefer said.