麻豆影院

Undergraduate students at the University of Colorado will soon enjoy a new means of conducting scientific laboratory research, as CU 麻豆影院 is one of 11 U.S. institutions to receive a 2017 Beckman Scholars Program Award.

The Beckman Scholars Program, funded by a $156,000 grant, offers an in-depth research experience to talented, full-time CU 麻豆影院 undergraduates in the biological and chemical sciences. Each Beckman scholar will conduct independent laboratory research under the supervision of one of 15 in the following five departments:

• Chemistry and biochemistry
• Ecology and evolutionary biology
• Integrative physiology
• Molecular, cellular and developmental biology
• Psychology and neuroscience

The program will support six undergraduate Beckman Scholars over the course of three years (starting in the summers of 2017, 2018 and 2019), and will designate between one and three new scholars each year.

Each Beckman scholar will receive a stipend totaling $21,000, plus $2,800 for travel and supplies. Each faculty mentor will receive a $5,000 stipend to support the educational expenses associated with the mentor鈥檚 scholar. Each scholar will be supported over the course of two summers and one academic year.

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Brian DeDecker, faculty director of the CU 麻豆影院 Beckman Scholars Program and director of undergraduate research at the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, noted that undergraduate research opportunities are in high demand.

Undergraduate researchers who are in the laboratories of the Beckman faculty mentors at CU 麻豆影院 are viewed as 鈥渇ull-fledged members of the lab, as colleagues,鈥� said Paul Muhlrad, science communications manager in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.

DeDecker concurred, noting that undergraduate researchers are deeply involved in 鈥渁ctual, discovery research, and that鈥檚 a real change from textbooks, obviously.鈥�

When DeDecker himself was an undergraduate, textbook learning did not inspire him. 鈥淏ut when I got into a lab, I鈥檓 like, 鈥極h, my goodness. These aren鈥檛 just facts that we鈥檙e drawing from the air. These are incredible ideas that were developed with lots of hard work and deep thinking.鈥� That made me appreciate them all the more.鈥�

At CU 麻豆影院, the Beckman Scholars Program is open even to students who don鈥檛 have any research experience, Muhlrad noted.

The Beckman Scholars Program is an initiative of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, which provides grants to researchers and non-profit research institutions in chemistry and life sciences to promote scientific discoveries, and particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments and materials that will open up new avenues of research.

The late Arnold O. Beckman founded Beckman Instruments and created devices that revolutionized the study and understanding of chemistry and human biology. Among other things, he invented the acidmeter, the forerunner of the modern pH meter.

Beckman made the invention, designed to measure the acidity of lemon juice, for a former classmate working at a California citrus plant.

For more information about the Beckman Scholars Program at CU 麻豆影院 or to apply, click .

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