(MIDDLETOWN, CT) – Wesleyan University today announced that it has received a $1.3 million dollar, four-year grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to enhance its undergraduate science programs on campus.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is awarding $49.7 million in grants to 42 baccalaureate and master's degree institutions, including Wesleyan University, in 17 states and Puerto Rico. This brings HHMI's investment in undergraduate science to more than $606 million.
Wesleyan's grant will primarily support the University's Hughes Summer Research Program. The Hughes Program, which this year runs from June 1 to August 6th, will enable approximately 40 students – freshman, sophomores and juniors currently enrolled at Wesleyan and a limited number of students enrolled at other Connecticut colleges and universities –to conduct research while working closely with Wesleyan's science faculty. The students receive stipends to remain on campus to participate in cutting-edge research and to participate in special seminar, enrichment and social programs.
"This is an exciting time for the life sciences," says Michael Weir, program director of the Wesleyan University Hughes Program in the Life Sciences. "There are massive amounts of new information from the genome projects, which calls for the integration of analytical approaches from computer and information sciences, as well as the integration of biological ethics, into our life-science studies."
Through support from HHMI, Wesleyan will enrich its curriculum and research through development of collaboratively taught new courses and modules within existing courses, and through dual-mentored student research. The grant will help fund new staff, including a life sciences computer programmer who will work with faculty in the development of our new curriculum. New state-of-the art equipment for teaching laboratories and for future new faculty will also be supplied.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is a nonprofit medical research organization that employs hundreds of leading biomedical scientists working at the forefront of their fields. In addition, through its grants program and other activities, HHMI is helping to enhance science education at all levels and maintain the vigor of biomedical science worldwide. The Institute is one of the world's largest philanthropies, with laboratories across the United States and grants programs throughout the world.
Established in 1831, Wesleyan University is a coeducational, private university of the liberal arts and sciences. It serves approximately 2,700 undergraduates and 150 graduate students and offers a challenging academic environment promoting independent thought and action.
For more information about the Hughes Summer Research Program, please visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/hughes/ or contact Laura Perillo at 860-685-3813 or lperillo@wesleyan.edu.
