Congratulations to the BioFrontiers Institute's Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology Program for earning a $3 Million IGERT Grant from the National Science Foundation. The award was announced on Thursday, June 7th.
According to their website, Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) is the National Science Foundation's flagship interdisciplinary training program, educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers by building on the foundations of their disciplinary knowledge with interdisciplinary training. The IQ Biology Program was one of three institutes in Colorado to be awarded an IGERT Grant this year.
"It's great news for the physics department and the biophysics program here to be recognized with funding to support interdisciplinary education in quantitative biology and biophysics," Associate Professor and BioFrontiers Task Force member Meredith Betterton said.
The IQ Biology Program incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to graduate education. Participating students earn a Ph.D. in one of eight academic departments-including the Department of Physics-while immersed in an "interdisciplinary culture" designed to provide a diverse education in other fields. Dr. Betterton serves as Co-Principal Investigator to the program.
"One of the recognized national research needs is to recruit and support students with physical science backgrounds doing research in the biological sciences," Betterton said. "This IGERT funding will help support students from a range of backgrounds who want to work in interdisciplinary areas of biology. The funding will be particularly valuable to students with physics backgrounds who want to work in biophysics and need to improve their understanding of biology to do research in this area."
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