University wins prized HHMI grant

Students and area elementary, high schools will benefit

Washington University is one of 58 U.S. universities that will share in $91.1 million in four-year grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to improve the quality of science education for American college students.

The grants, which range between $1.2 million and $2.2 million, bring to more than $425 million the amount awarded since 1988 through HHMI's undergraduate grants program, the largest private initiative in U.S. history to enhance undergraduate science education nationwide.

The universities will use the grants to expand research opportunities for undergraduates, update science courses and curricula, attract new faculty in emerging fields of science and modernize laboratories with new scientific equipment and technology. Many also will expand their science outreach programs with nearby schools and community colleges.

Washington University, which has been funded by this program since 1992, will receive $1.6 million over four years to provide wide-ranging services and support for undergraduate and K-12 science education.

The University will use the new funding to support:

• curriculum development, including interdisciplinary, investigative laboratories and computer-aided approaches in chemistry, biology and biomedical physics; incorporation of research into a general genetics course; and development of a new calculus laboratory model;

• courses emphasizing investigative, hands-on activity in biology, physics and math for K-8 teachers and undergraduate science volunteers who take hands-on science into K-8 classrooms and a hands-on genetics curriculum for high school students, now in seven area high schools;

• a research-based program for the University's pre-freshmen; an information resource center with peer tutoring in first-year biology; and proposal-based summer research with a concluding symposium for undergraduates.

John A. Bernat Jr., a senior in Arts and Sciences, peers through the microscope in the laboratory of Sarah C.R. Elgin, Ph.D., professor of biology. Bernat is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) fellow and has been conducting research at the University since the summer before his freshman year through the recently re-funded HHMI undergraduate grants program.

Sarah C.R. Elgin, Ph.D., professor of biology, directs the University's Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program. The University received $1.7 million in 1992 and $1.4 million in 1994 from the HHMI program.

HHMI invited proposals from 205 research and doctoral universities. The 191 proposals received were reviewed by a panel of scientists and educators to provide guidance to HHMI's staff, which submitted a recommended list of awards to the institute's trustees for their approval.

The undergraduate grants program is the largest of several HHMI initiatives to improve science education from elementary school through postgraduate training. Founded in 1953, the institute is the nation's largest private philanthropy.

Since 1988, more than 30,000 undergraduates nationwide have been involved in scientific research with funding from the HHMI program. More than 89,000 elementary, middle and high school students and more than 32,000 pre-college teachers have participated in outreach programs.

"With the support of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Washington University has made a very substantial impact on science education in several area secondary schools, and our undergraduates have been exposed to outstanding research experiences," Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. "The University is grateful to continue in this exciting endeavor to expand science education and science participation."

More than 330 Hughes investigators conduct medical research in HHMI laboratories at 72 academic medical centers and universities nationwide. Ten Washington University faculty in the School of Medicine are HHMI investigators.