Chair named for ousted surgeon

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. linkurl:John Najarian,;http://www.surg.umn.edu/surgery/faculty/najarian_john_s.html 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__ linkurl:reported;http://tinyurl.com/2xlx59 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 linkurl:acquitted Najarian;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/13380 and he has remained at the university since, but the university president at the time of the lawsuit considered him guilty of misconduct...