Former WSU President Thomas Bonner's $50,000 endowment gift to the WSU Academy of Scholars will support a new cash prize for books on the liberal arts.

In announcing the award, Academy President Melvin Small said the first Thomas N. Bonner Award will be presented in the fall of 2002.

In the spirit of Professor Bonner's career as an educator, university president and renowned historian of medicine and medical education, the prize, awarded biennially in the amount of $2,500, will recognize the best recent book in English on the theory and practices of the liberal arts," Small said.

Special consideration will be given to studies that bridge the "two cultures" of sciences and the humanities, Small said, which is a characteristic of Bonner's own work.

He was WSU president from 1978 to 1982 and has since retired and moved to Arizona. After his tenure as president he was named a distinguished professor in the department of history at WSU. He also served as president of the Academy of Scholars.

In addition to his gift to the Academy, Bonner contributed another $50,000 to the history department to advance the study of history.

He has received two Faculty Recognition Awards from the Board of Governors for his books on medical education. His book, Becoming a Physician: Medical Education in Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States, 1750-1945, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

New books published in 2000 and 2001 will be eligible for the Bonner Award, which will be presented in the context of a symposium to be held at WSU in the fall of 2002. The submission deadline is Dec. 31, 2001.

Two copies of the book to be entered should be sent to the Bonner Award Committee, care of Professor Sam Brooks, 0234 Lande Building, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202.