• AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, researcher Graham F. Hatfull turns high-school students into “phage hunters.” Working with soil samples from backyards and barnyards—and notably the monkey pit at the Bronx Zoo—they have identified more than 30 new bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). Genomic information learned from the phages has been so important, says Hatfull, that he and some of his high-school students were coauthors, together with HHMI investigator William R. Jacobs, on a research paper in the journal Cell.
  
  
• AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Richard M. Losick places freshmen in research labs, where they learn, hands-on, how science is really done. Losick has also developed Web-based animations and video modules for teaching molecular biology concepts and procedures.
  
  
• COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S Darcy B. Kelley and colleagues developed a course called “Frontiers of Science.” Now a requirement for every entering student, it covers topics such as the origins of the universe, the evolution of language, and the future of the planet.

Hatfull, Losik, and Kelley are members of the first class of HHMI professors—a group of 20 innovative research scientists, appointed in 2002, who are working to incorporate the excitement of scientific research and discovery into undergraduate education. They want everyone—science majors and non-science majors alike—to understand not only how research is done but also how it affects people’s daily lives. Now, HHMI is looking for some more faculty who are similarly motivated.

One hundred research universities were invited to nominate one or two of their best scientist-educators. The deadline for nominations was May 2, 2005, and nominees must submit proposals by September 7, 2005. From this eminent group, a new class of up to 20 faculty members will be named HHMI professors in 2006, with each of them receiving a 4-year award of $1 million.

The HHMI professors program is part of the Institute’s long-term plan to improve science education at all levels, to help produce the next generation of research scientists, and to create a more science-literate public. To date, HHMI has awarded more than $600 million to public and private colleges and universities as well as $20 million to the first class of HHMI professors.