Union
College has been awarded $1.6
million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to effectively build programs
and motivate students toward research, study and careers in emerging new fields
in the sciences and engineering.
The funds
will be used to create a Center for Bioengineering & Computational Biology, including new research laboratories,
networked classrooms, a bioengineering teaching laboratory, and curricular
materials to support several new interdisciplinary courses.
Leo
Fleishman, chair of Union's Biology Department, was the
lead person for the proposal, with assistance from Biology and Mechanical
Engineering faculty.
“We are
delighted by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's confidence-once again-in Union,”
said Union College President Roger H. Hull. “The grant comes at a perfect time
for the College as we move forward with Converging Technologies, our unique
effort to blend the liberal arts and engineering. We are appreciative of HHMI's support and their recognition of the groundbreaking
work we are doing.”
In 2003, Union
began offering an academic minor in bioengineering. This program will be
greatly strengthened by these funds and allow for the hiring of a new faculty
member. In addition, the College will create 24 student research fellowships
over the four years of the grant. Four students each year will spend a summer
conducting research at one of three collaborating institutions: Syracuse
University, Albany
Medical College,
and the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany.
Also planned
is a web-based “Virtual Bioengineering Laboratory” that will develop and house
interactive activities, whereby remote users can work with experimental systems
located at the College's Bioengineering
Center and view the results online.
Activities for both high school and college students will be developed.
Union
College received grants from HHMI
in 1993 and 1988 as well. Among the programs funded by past Hughes grants were
several targeting K-12 science, and math and technology curriculum improvement
(particularly in economically disadvantaged school districts in the region).
The present grant will allow for the continuation of these programs, including
the popular Summer Science Workshop for underrepresented talented high school
students. The program is designed to encourage juniors and seniors to attend
college, major in biology or another science, and go on to graduate or
professional school.
HHMI awarded
nearly $50 million in grants to 42 colleges in the U.S.
and Puerto Rico. Union shared the
lead for top awards with Williams College
and Haverford College.