Two Nobel Prize recipients were among those who visited Morehouse School of Medicine on Tuesday to kick off a $250,000 lectureship endowment.

The endowment is aimed at recognizing the Atlanta-based medical school’s commitment to health science research, officials said.

Dr. Martin Chalfie, a 2008 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, for the introduction of GFP as a biological marker gave the initial lecture. He is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. Fifteen students from Fulton Leadership Academy attended one of the lectures and met afterward with Chalfie and Morehouse School of Medicine president Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice.

Dr. Torsten Wiesel, a 1981 Nobel laureate also attended Tuesday’s lecture.

The lectureship is named after Drs. Peter and Marlene MacLeish, who earned acclaim for their work in neuroscience and health disparities research. The goal is of the endowment is to continue their work by increasing the quality and impact of basic science research and education at the school.

In other Morehouse news:

It's a private, all-male HBCU located in Atlanta, GA. It was founded on Feb. 14, 1867. The mascot is the tiger. Alumni include Martin Luther King and Samuel L. Jackson. "Hidden Figures" and "Drumline" have filmed on the campus.

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