After spending millions on behalf of a heart surgeon's legal dispute, the University of Minnesota has agreed to shell out another half million honoring his name. John Najarian, a heart surgeon formerly at the center of a major legal dispute between the University of Minnesota and the US government, will lend his name to a newly endowed chair at the university, the Pioneer Press reported this week. Although Najarian cost the school $32 million to settle the lawsuit and was forced to leave his position as chair of surgery, the school will contribute $500,000 to the $2 million endowment.

Najarian was a transplant surgeon who got in trouble in the early 1990s after developing and distributing an anti-rejection drug, anti-lymphocyte globulin, without license. The court acquitted Najarian and he has remained at the university since, but the university president at the time of the lawsuit considered him guilty of misconduct and an independent faculty committee "found Najarian unfit to do research on human subjects," the Press reported.

A university administrator told the Press that Najarian's "clinical contributions to humanity" were still worthy of celebration. A hat tip to the Chronicle of Higher Education's news blog for spotting the article.