Colgate joins Beckman Scholars Program

Student stands at a lab table, reading notes in Wynn Hall

Students in Julie Chanatryís Chemical Principles Laboratory in Wynn Hall. Photo by Andrew Daddio

Colgate University has been named as a Beckman Scholars Program institutional award recipient for 2016.

The grant, totaling $104,000, will provide multi-year research funding for students majoring in biology or chemistry. Colgate joins a distinguished list of universities that received the award from the Irvine, Calif.–based Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation in 2016 — it includes Emory, Vanderbilt, and the University of Chicago among others.

“We are delighted to have been selected,” said Damhnait McHugh, Raab Family Chair and Professor of biology; director of the division of natural sciences and mathematics. “It offers our top students unparalleled opportunities to engage in extended scholarship.”

To be considered for the Beckman Scholars Program at Colgate, biology and chemistry students will be required to undergo a rigorous application process in consultation with one of 13 faculty mentors, who have collectively published 48 articles alongside 96 undergraduate co-authors during the past five years.

A steering committee, chaired by McHugh and including Tim McCay (chair and professor of biology), Ephraim Woods (chair and associate professor of chemistry), and Roger Rowlett (Gordon and Dorothy Kline Professor of chemistry), will name one or two Beckman Scholars each year from the applicant pool.

Beckman Scholars will receive stipend support for research, travel, and supplies during 18 months of independent research, and will present findings from their research both on campus and at national and international conferences. They will submit articles for publication by peer-reviewed journals and use their explorations as a springboard to graduate programs in biology, chemistry, or medical sciences.

“This award will provide Beckman Scholars at Colgate with great rewards in terms of their research outcomes, and in their development as excellent scientists as they work alongside their faculty mentors,” said McHugh.