Union is among 14 colleges and universities that have been awarded a grant from the Merck/AAAS Undergraduate Science Research Program.
Sponsored by the Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the awards provide up to $60,000, paid over three years, to support research stipends for undergraduate students and programs that encourage research collaborations between biology and chemistry departments.
“The most exciting advances in science are occurring at the intersection of traditional disciplines spawning new fields of study,” said Joanne Kehlbeck, assistant professor of Chemistry.
Kehlbeck said the award will promote increased collaboration in the areas of chemical ecology, environmental science, enzymatic physiology and chemical biology as well as the more traditional cross-disciplinary projects in biochemistry.
The proposed projects involve an ecosystem ecologist (Assistant Prof. Jeff Corbin), a disease ecologist (Assistant Prof. Kathleen LoGiudice), a physiologist (Assistant Prof. Scott Kirkton), a cell biologist (Associate Prof. Barbara Danowski) and a geneticist (Associate Prof. Steve Horton) in the Biology Department.
They would work with chemists with training in analytical chemistry (Assistant Prof. Laura MacManus-Spencer), organic chemistry (Kehlbeck), physical chemistry (Visiting Associate Prof. Sue Kohler) and biochemistry (Associate Professor Kristin Fox).
The Merck/AAAS Undergraduate Science Research Program is a competitive program that provides up to 15 awards annually.
Launched in 2000 as a national competition, the $9 million initiative is funded by MISE and administered by AAAS. It is open to institutions in the United States and Puerto Rico that offer an American Chemical Society-approved program in chemistry and confer 10 or fewer graduate degrees annually in biology and chemistry combined.
Established in 1993, MISE works to build capacity in the biomedical sciences through partnerships with education institutions. The AAAS, founded in 1848, is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal, “Science” (www.sciencemag.org).