The University Center for Ethics and the Professions, one of several cross-faculty programs within Harvard, has received a $12 million bequest from the estate of the late Lester Kissel `31.

The money will create the Lester Kissel Presidential Fund for Ethics, as well as the smaller Lester Kissel Endowment in Ethics and Values fund. The bequest will be officially announced Thursday.

The center will use this money to fund ethics courses and to foster faculty development in the field via fellowships.

Until the Kissel bequest two weeks ago, none of the center's fellowships had a permanent source of funding.

"[Until now] the distribution of the Center's available funds was left to the discretion of the University's president, at the advice of the center's director," said Jean McVeigh, the center's administrative director.

Now, the new endowment will serve to pay for smaller and shorter workshops geared to professionals who do not have the same amount of time available to a professor. The smaller fund will also support several short-term fellowships.

"We expect to take the results of our research on ethics into law and business firms. We know that this takes time, but this [donation] is a start," McVeigh said. "Our goal is to translate the results of academic research on ethics to the real world. Hopefully, we'll impact the person on the street through the application of concepts to real life issues."

Fifteen former fellows at the center have gone on to become University faculty.