The Duke Endowment in Charlotte, North Carolina, has announced gifts totaling $17 million to Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, to support the creation of a major scholarship program for out-of-state students and other activities at the school.

A total of $14 million will be used to establish the Charles H. Townes Scholarship program, which will complement the existing Hollingsworth Scholarship program for South Carolina residents. The new program is named in honor of the Furman alumnus and trustee who received the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 2005 Templeton Prize. When the program is fully operational in 2012-13, the university will award forty Townes scholarships of approximately $30,000 each year.

The remaining $3 million will be used to provide endowed professorships and support the work of current faculty in the university's department of Asian studies.

"We believe these grants are an excellent way to continue Mr. Duke's vision and hope for Furman University, because he did believe so strongly that Furman matters, not only in South Carolina but in the Carolinas and the nation generally," said endowment board chair Russell M. Robinson II. "Our hope is that Furman alumni and friends will be inspired to follow suit in supporting these and other strategic campaign objectives."