The new Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study received a $1.5 million donation to endow a professorship of its own, Radcliffe announced last week.

Radcliffe--an independent college for 120 years until its Oct. 1 merger with Harvard--always lacked a faculty and used Harvard professors to teach its female undergraduates of the past.

Now, as the college looks to transform itself into the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, it has slowly begun to amass a fleet of scholars that will define the next chapter in the school's history.

Terrence Murray '62 , chief executive officer of FleetBoston Financial Corporation, made the gift in honor of his wife, Suzanne Y. Murray '62, co-chair of the Radcliffe capital campaign. The donation will be matched by an additional $1.5 million from a Harvard challenge fund.

Mary Maples Dunn, acting dean of the Institute, said she will leave it to the first permanently-appointed dean to choose the first Murray professor.

The Murray professorship is not bound by criteria for any specific academic field, but instead will be appointed by the Dean of Radcliffe.

"The dean will have to decide what field [the professor will be from]. The Murrays have not said they have an interest in one subject over another," Dunn said. "Once we have an [academic] field, we have to explore the possibilities. One asks, who are the best people in the area?"

Dunn said the first Murray professor will probably begin tenure in the fall of 2001.

Murray's gift is the first donation to qualify for the matching monies from Harvard since the matching gift fund got up and running on Oct. 1. The fund, with $30 million for matching large gifts, was a component of the $150 million Harvard gave Radcliffe in the schools' merger agreement.

Only donations that fund half a fellowship or five-year professor appointment, which cost $750,000 and $1.5 million respectively, qualify for the matching funds from Harvard.

Suzanne Murray, in whose honor the chair is named, took part in the merger negotiations with Harvard and was one of the only trustees to attend last April's announcement of Harvard and Radcliffe's intention to merge.

Terrence Murray said in a press release that he hoped the professorship would encourage intellectuals to conduct research in Radcliffe's unique environment.

"In its new incarnation, Radcliffe will become a hub of cutting-edge scholarship and research and, I believe, the source of many solutions to challenges facing the world," Murray said.

Dunn said the Murray gift indicates strong support for Radcliffe as it sorts out what its goals and initiatives will be post-merger.

"A very significant donation has come in and it symbolizes a special kind of confidence and optimism in the Radcliffe Institute," Dunn said. " It's carrying this wonderful weight of approval and optimism."

Dunn has been crisscrossing the country in recent months, meeting with Radcliffe alumnae groups in various states, including New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago.

She said the tour is not to solicit donations for the seven-year, $100 million Radcliffe capital campaign, scheduled to end in June of this year. Instead, Dunn said she's been explaining the implications and nitty-gritty details of the merger.

"This round of visits is really to talk to alums about the changes [in Radcliffe], to answer their questions so that the first dean will be able to concentrate on talking about the present and future...and not have to be so concerned that everyone understand what we're doing," Dunn said.

Dunn will meet with the Radcliffe Club of Boston Jan. 27.