HAVERFORD WINS SECOND CONSECUTIVE
NATIONAL HHMI GRANT AT
MAXIMUM AWARD AMOUNT
For the second consecutive Howard
Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) undergraduate science grant
cycle, Haverford College has received the maximum four-year
award to improve undergraduate science. In 2000, the College
received $1.7 million, and this time, $1.6 million. Haverford
now has received HHMI funding in some form for more than 15
years.
“Haverford’s continued success with HHMI is a testimony
to the collaboration of our highly successful and interdisciplinary-minded
faculty,” says Tom Tritton, president. “The faculty
are dedicated to collaborative learning, to preparing the scientific
leaders of the next generation.”
Karin Åkerfeldt, associate professor of chemistry, is
Haverford’s HHMI program director. “Haverford’s
approach to the natural sciences is integrated and collaborative,”
she says. “This grant will support a variety of programs
within our new state-of-the-art facility, the Marian E. Koshland
Integrated Natural Sciences Center.”
Haverford’s grant proposal process began last June, when
John Mosteller, director of foundations and corporate relations;
Kate Heston, HHMI program administrator and instructor in biology;
and Julio de Paula, professor of chemistry and director of the
Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center began coordinating
ideas and structure for the proposal and commenced with the
actual writing of the document. The proposal was submitted to
HHMI in October 2003. As director of the HHMI program, Åkerfeldt,
along with program administrator Heston and a faculty committee,
is charged with implementing the initiatives described in the
proposal.
Colleges face a number of challenges in teaching science today.
The separation between fields is blurring and biologists, chemists,
physicists, psychologists, and mathematicians are increasingly
engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations. Scientists need
to be more broadly trained. Considerable efforts are also being
made at increasing the diversity of science and ways must be
found to encourage less-represented groups to pursue a scientific
career.
To help colleges meet these challenges, the HHMI is awarding
$49.7 million in grants to 42 baccalaureate and master’s
degree institutions in 17 states and Puerto Rico. This brings
HHMI’s investment in undergraduate science to more than
$606 million.
The four-year grants, ranging from $500,000 to $1.6 million,
support a variety of programs to improve undergraduate science,
from new courses in hot fields such as bioinformatics and computational
biology, to fellowships for postdoctoral researchers that include
teaching experiences and ways to bring science opportunities
to disadvantaged and minority students.
Although the major research is conducted at universities and
medical schools, HHMI also recognizes the importance of colleges
because they also play a vital role in education. According
to Peter Bruns, vice president for grants and special programs
at HHMI, “Good science can be done in different settings,
in colleges as well as universities. Colleges are a better learning
environment for some students, and they serve underrepresented
minorities extremely well.”
Undergraduate biology is not well-funded
nationally, notes Stephen Barkanic, director of HHMI’s
undergraduate science education program. “Public and private
funders tend to focus their support on research programs, infrastructure,
and graduate training, but undergraduate biology tends to be
neglected. Smaller colleges and universities, in particular,
often are overlooked in the intensive competition for grant
dollars.”
The new grants encourage collaboration among recipients. Carleton
and St. Olaf Colleges in Minnesota, for example, are collaborating
with Michigan’s Hope College to create faculty teams from
biology, the physical sciences, and mathematics who will work
together on research and develop interdisciplinary courses and
labs.
The grants also support training in teaching for postdoctoral
fellows in science. City University of New York Queens College,
Occidental College in Los Angeles, and North Carolina’s
Davidson College, for example, will establish postdoctoral fellowships
that provide training and experience in teaching as a component
of a strong research program.
Several of the new grants address the ongoing under representation
of some minorities in the sciences. Bryn Mawr and Haverford
will bring their strengths in science to a partnership with
Philadelphia area schools. Undergraduates and faculty from both
colleges will mentor middle- and high-school students, providing
laboratory experiences and writing workshops. The colleges also
will offer summer workshops for Philadelphia-area teachers.
In the lower Rio Grande Valley, where the population is 88 percent
Hispanic and the unemployment rate is triple the national average,
the University of Texas-Pan American will equip a mobile teaching
laboratory staffed with scientist-educators to bring contemporary
biology to students and teachers throughout the region. And
Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, a historically black
institution, will develop after-school and summer science and
technology programs to attract the mostly African-American students
of the Leon County South Side Schools.
HHMI invited 198 public and private baccalaureate and master’s
institutions to compete for the new awards. They were selected
for their record of preparing students for graduate education
and careers in research, teaching, or medicine. A panel of distinguished
scientists and educators reviewed proposals and recommended
the 42 awards approved by the Institute’s Board of Trustees
on May 4.
2004 Awardees:
Amherst College
$1.3 million
Barnard College
$1.5 million
Bates College
$1.2 million
Bowdoin College
$800,000
Bryn Mawr College
$1.2 million
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
$1.3 million
Canisius College
$800,000
Carleton College
$800,000
City University of New York City College
$1.3 million
City University of New York Hunter College
$800,000
City University of New York Queens College
$800,000
College of Wooster
$800,000
Davidson College
$1.3 million
Florida A & M University
$1.2 million
Grinnell College
$1.4 million
Harvey Mudd College
$1.2 million
Haverford College
$1.6 million
Hiram College
$1.2 million
Hope College
$1.5 million
Humboldt State University
$1.3 million
Kalamazoo College
$1.1 million
Kenyon College
$1.5 million
Knox College
$1 million
Mount Holyoke College
$1.2 million
Occidental College
$1.5 million
Point Loma Nazarene College
$800,000
Pomona College
$1.3 million
Saint Olaf College
$1.4 million
Smith College
$1.3 million
Spelman College
$1.3 million
Swarthmore College
$1.5 million
Trinity College
$800,000
Trinity University
$1 million
Union College
$1.6 million
University of Louisiana at Monroe
$1 million
University of Puerto Rico Cayey University
College
