The Maryland Department of Commerce, Bowie State University and Goucher College have partnered together to endow more than $2 million in new research professorships.

The endowments were made through the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund (MEIF), a program created to encourage basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields at colleges and universities. The schools raised a total of $1 million in private funding and Maryland Commerce approved matching grants of $1 million to support the endowments.

“The past year has shown us time and time again why innovative thinking and creative new ideas are essential to Maryland’s economic prosperity. We can never be sure what obstacles life will throw in our path,” said Maryland Commerce Secretary Kelly M. Schulz. “By supporting these professorships, Commerce is helping make sure that some of the sharpest minds in Maryland continue their important work.”

Bowie State University will use the $500,000 Maryland E-Nnovation award to establish an endowed chair of cybersecurity, who will serve as the director of the Center for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies in the Department of Computer Science. This marks the first endowed chair position in the history of this institution.

Goucher College received matching funds of $500,000 for a total of $1,000,000 to support the endowed professorship in integrative data analytics. This data science faculty position will support Goucher’s new integrative data analytics major and lead programming to develop students’ skills that can be applied to data analytics in local, state, and federal governmental agencies, as well as with non-profit organizations and local and global corporations.

Read the full press release.