The estate of the late Adelaide Lackner established this fund to honor her parents and to support a professor of medicine in the College of Medicine who will complete research on life-threatening diseases. Her father was a doctor and her family was originally from Wisconsin, where Adelaide attended high school.

Adelaide suffered from Epstein Barr, one of the most common human viruses, which can attack the heart or the central nervous system. She passed away on Feb. 18, 2003.