Tulane using $5 million gift to fund scholarship on aging Tulane University says a $5 million gift will be used to help increase scientific understanding of aging and longevity. The gift is from Tulane alumnus Richard M. Lerner. It will be used to establish the Lawrence E. Lerner Presidential Chair Endowed Fund, named for the donor’s father. Tulane says in a news release that Lerner requested that the initial chair holder be a scholar whose research focuses on gerontology or related disciplines. He was motivated by experiences with his father’s aging process. “It’s great that people are living longer thanks to advances in science and medicine, but from experience, many of us know that those additional years are not always good ones,” Lerner said in a Tulane news release.