The grant will also allow both the University of Florida and Morehouse to make “HHMI Distinguished Mentor” awards to at least 27 current faculty members who demonstrate excellence in their mentoring. Each award, consisting of $10,000 over a two-year period, can be spent at the faculty member's discretion.

About 825 miles northeast of Gainesville stands the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). With a total enrollment one-quarter that of the University of Florida, UMBC is establishing a national reputation for attracting and retaining talented minority students interested in the biomedical sciences.

Its program, called the Hughes Scholar Program, has supported 25 students so far, 23 of whom have been African American. With a $2.2 million HHMI grant renewal, UMBC will expand the program to support seven students per year, up from five. Since the program launched in 2002, eight Hughes Scholars have graduated from UMBC, and all have gone on to M.D., Ph.D., or M.D.-Ph.D. programs at places such as Stanford University, The Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, the University of Florida, and the University of Maryland, College Park. “They're not just getting into graduate programs, they're getting into the very best programs,” says Michael F. Summers, an HHMI investigator and the program director.

Scholars are selected as incoming freshmen, and their tuition and room and board are covered by the grant for their first two years of college. (UMBC covers expenses for the junior and senior years using a government grant.) They do research during the summer and travel to scientific meetings.

To ensure their success, scholars attend a summer “bridge” program before freshman year begins to become familiar with the campus and its research opportunities. During freshman year, they rotate through several laboratories, eventually choosing a “home” laboratory in which to undertake long-term research. They then begin working in the lab the summer before their sophomore year.

Scholars also are required to complete at least one summer of research with an HHMI investigator elsewhere in the country, usually after their sophomore year. Each scholar also has the option of spending his or her junior year in the lab of another HHMI investigator.

Besides doing research, Hughes Scholars serve as tutors and mentors to local elementary and high school students. Many also tutor fellow UMBC students in chemistry, biology, or physics.

		The new undergraduate research awards provide from $1.5 million to $2.2 million over 4 years. HHMI invited 214 universities—each with a proven track record in both research and undergraduate education—to apply; 158 applications were received. In May, 50 institutions received grants to develop new courses, enhance teaching and mentoring skills, improve science literacy in nonscience majors, and attract and retain traditionally underrepresented groups to the sciences.

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