Added Incentives

Stipend: Beckman Scholars will receive substantial scholarship support for the two summers of research and for the academic year. The total award for a 15 month period covered by the scholarship is $21,000. Money for research supplies, travel to a national scientific meeting, and travel to the nationwide gathering of Beckman Scholars is included in the award.

Curricular opportunities: We offer all Beckman Scholars the opportunity to propose substitutions for required courses with initiatives that will enhance their skills both as researchers and independent scholars.It is not necessary to have any specific curricular opportunities such as these in mind when applying to the Beckman Scholars program (stage one).

Research opportunities: In addition to providing recognition for academic merit and a unique research opportunity, the Beckman Scholar program will allow Scholars to receive the educational advantage of a long-term, intensive collaboration with their faculty mentor, which will encompass career and curricular advising as well as research mentoring. Beckman Scholars will typically be enrolled in more than two semesters of research for credit during their Haverford experience; in fact, many have received 4-5 credits of research during their Haverford careers.

Application Procedures

Sophomore and junior Biology and Chemistry majors, and students from other majors with appropriate interdisciplinary interests are encouraged to apply. The application procedure consists of two stages -

• Stage 1) an online application and submission of unofficial transcripts: due by Feb. 11, 2018 (coincident with the KINSC summer scholars application deadline).
• Stage 2) written application and interview for those applicants selected as finalists: during the month of February, with final selection by early March

Students interested in the Beckman Scholar program should begin by contacting faculty members whom they wish to propose as faculty mentors. If a student is selected as a finalist, the student should meet with the proposed faculty mentor to discuss details of the research project, to write a clear proposal, and to devise (in consultation with the student's academic advisor) a research-centered program of study for their remaining year(s) at Haverford.

Possible Mentors for Beckman Scholars

The list below includes all faculty members approved by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation to be mentors to Beckman Scholars. Please bear in mind that many mentors have several related projects in which a Beckman Scholar could become involved; more information can be found on web pages or by talking to individual faculty members.

Students interested in the Beckman Scholar program should begin by contacting faculty members who they wish to propose as faculty mentors. The initial contact can be brief, but once a student has been selected as a finalist, the student should meet with the proposed faculty mentor to discuss details of the research project and to devise (in consultation with the student's academic advisor) a research-centered program of study for their remaining year(s) at Haverford. It will be possible (but not necessary) for the student to propose substitutions for courses normally required for the major.

Students wishing to do research with a faculty member not listed below should consider the possibility of a collaborative research project involving two faculty members.

• Louise Charkoudian, Chemistry: My laboratory uses a number of different approaches (from molecular biology to bioinformatics to organic chemistry) to understand how bacteria biosynthesize structurally complex and pharmacologically-relevant molecules. We would like to harness naturally occurring protein assemblies to create new chemical diversity.  To accomplish this feat, we need to understand the genes, enzymes,  protein-protein interactions, and chemical reactions that nature utilizes to build natural products.
• Rob Fairman , Biology: My laboratory uses the coiled coil protein folding motif to design photoelectronically conductive regulated filaments and fibers. We are also interested in understanding the molecular role of glutamines in protein misfolding for diseases such as Huntington’s. We use a beta-hairpin peptide and the exon 1 fragment of the huntingtin protein as our model systems; we also work with model organisms that express these disease-related proteins.
• Sorelle Friedler, Computer Science: A Beckman scholar working in my lab would work on the Dark Reactions Project or other machine learning projects working with chemistry data. The DRP is an NSF funded collaboration between my group and the Schrier and Norquist labs in Chemistry that uses machine learning techniques to predict and improve the outcomes of materials chemistry synthesis experiments.
• Roshan Jain, Biology: My lab studies how genes regulate decision-making and learning through molecular genetics, imaging of neural circuit development and function, optogenetic neural activity manipulation, and high-throughput behavioral approaches in the zebrafish model system. We use genetic mutants with defects in behavioral modulation to understand how vertebrate animals "do the right thing at the right time" at the molecular, cellular, circuit, and whole organism levels.
• Casey Londergan, Chemistry: My laboratory applies vibrational spectroscopy, including infrared and Raman spectroscopy, coupled with chemical modification of protein side chains to understand particularly dynamic proteins on a site-specific basis. We also use computer simulations of proteins to help interpret our experimental data. Natural systems of particular interest include enzyme active sites, binding domains of intrinsically disordered proteins, and membrane-modifying peptides and proteins.
• Alexander Norquist, Chemistry:  My research interests are focused on the synthesis of new solid state materials with desirable physical properties. Specifically, mild hydrothermal conditions have been used to prepare a series of new organically templated inorganic compounds. Investigations have been directed toward the development of systematic means for the creation of new noncentrosymmetric materials. Our work has been focused on the study of templated polyoxomolybdates and metal phosphates, sulfates, sulfites and tellurites.
• Joshua Schrier, Chemistry: My research interests are in computational simulation- and data-driven strategies to the design of chemical systems.  Systems of interest include solid-state functional materials, organohalide perovskites, organic semiconductors, and gas-separation materials.
• Walter Smith, Physics: My laboratory creates and characterizes the photonic and electronic properties of nanoscale assemblies, including porphyrin nanowires and DNA oligomers, for use as nanoscale devices in concert with microfabricated electronics. Current work focuses on modification of DNA, and making DNA-porphryin hybrids, so as to create DNA-based self-assembling circuits with photoelectronic activity.
• Kristen Whalen, Biology: My laboratory takes an integrative approach using molecular, cellular, and biochemical techniques to examine organismal physiological responses that regulate chemical tolerance, and windows of cellular vulnerability to environmental chemical stress. Additionally, members of the lab can take an ecologically‐inspired approach to help guide the discovery of novel marine‐based pharmaceuticals using advanced analytical chemistry techniques. Our innovative search for molecules to reverse drug resistance has benefited enormously from understanding the natural history of chemical interactions in the marine ecosystem.
• Helen White, Chemistry: Biogeochemistry. My laboratory examines the cycling of natural and anthropogenic organic carbon in the marine environment. We seek to understand the chemical and microbiological controls on these cycles and to enhance our understanding of the long term fate of organic compounds and macromolecules in environmental matrices, particularly marine sediments.