FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION:

Jennifer Donovan
(301) 215-8859
donovanj@hhmi.org
Howard Hughes
Medical Institute
4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815-6789
(301) 215-8500

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced today that it will award $91.1 million in four-year grants to help 58 research and doctoral universities strengthen their undergraduate education programs in the biological sciences.

The grants, which range between $1.2 million and $2.2 million, bring to more than $425 million the amount awarded since 1988 through HHMI's undergraduate grants program, the largest private initiative in U.S. history to enhance undergraduate science education nationwide. The universities will use the grants to expand research opportunities for undergraduates, update science courses and curricula, attract new faculty in emerging fields of science, and modernize laboratories through new scientific equipment and technology. Many will also expand their science outreach programs with nearby schools and community colleges.

"The Institute's undergraduate grants program, which is now entering its second decade, is having a major impact on how biology and related disciplines are taught at the college level," said Purnell W. Choppin, president of the Institute. "Large numbers of students are getting involved in original research projects such as exploring genetic databases on the Internet, examining how the brain functions and helping to determine the structures of biologically important molecules involved in AIDS and other diseases. In short, they're experiencing for themselves why biology is so exciting and important. It's an experience that will serve them well even if they decide to pursue careers in other fields."

Proposals were invited from 205 research and doctoral universities. The 191 proposals received were reviewed by a panel of distinguished scientists and educators to provide guidance to HHMI's staff, which submitted a recommended list of awards to the Institute's Trustees for their approval. This is the eighth round of grants awarded since the program began in 1988, and the fourth for research and doctoral universities. The other rounds have focused on liberal arts and master's degree-granting institutions, including historically black colleges and women's colleges.

The 58 universities receiving grants are located in 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. They include 54 institutions that have previously received grants under HHMI's undergraduate program. The four new institutions are Clemson University, Northern Arizona State University, the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and the University of Montana.

Since 1988, a total of 224 institutions has successfully competed for grants under HHMI's undergraduate biological sciences education program, which is helping to change the way science is taught nationwide not only at the undergraduate level, but also at thousands of K-12 schools that benefit from teacher training programs, student science camps, mentoring programs and other outreach activities. Many of the grants also support outreach programs with community colleges, historically black colleges and other undergraduate institutions.

Among the accomplishments of the HHMI program since 1988 are the following:

• More than 30,000 undergraduates have been involved in scientific research.
  
  
• More than 5,500 courses covering diverse fields of biology and other disciplines have been developed or revised.
  
  
• More than 250 science faculty members have been appointed.
  
  
• More than 89,000 elementary, middle and high school students and more than 32,000 precollege teachers have participated in outreach programs.
  
  

"Ten years of HHMI's grants have helped change how a generation of American college students learns about the life sciences," said Joseph G. Perpich, HHMI's vice president for grants and special programs. "Young people are getting to work on research projects in areas such as molecular, cell and computational biology, and they're using the latest technology in both the laboratory and the classroom. Biology, like the information sciences, is advancing at incredible speed these days, and itis essential that undergraduate education keep pace."

The undergraduate program is the largest of HHMI's grants initiative. Altogether, HHMI has awarded more than $700 million in grants since 1988, primarily to enhance science education at all levels within the United States. More information is available on HHMI's Web site, http://www.hhmi.org.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a medical research organization whose principal purpose is the conduct of biomedical research. It employs scientists in cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience and structural biology. More than 330 Hughes investigators conduct medical research in HHMI laboratories at 72 outstanding academic medical centers and universities nationwide. Through its complementary grants program, HHMI supports science education in the United States and a select group of researchers abroad.

HHMI Undergraduate Biological Sciences
Education Grants: 1998 Awardees

Institution	City/State	Amount
Arizona State University Main	Tempe, AZ	$1,400,000
Brandeis University	Waltham, MA	$1,200,000
Brown University	Providence, RI	$1,400,000
California Institute of Technology	Pasadena, CA	$2,000,000
Carnegie Mellon University	Pittsburgh, PA	$1,600,000
Case Western Reserve University	Cleveland, OH	$1,400,000
Clemson University	Clemson, SC	$1,600,000
College of William and Mary	Williamsburg, VA	$1,600,000
Colorado State University	Fort Collins, CO	$1,600,000
Cornell University	Ithaca, NY	$2,200,000
Duke University	Durham, NC	$1,400,000
Emory University	Atlanta, GA	$1,600,000
Georgetown University	Washington, DC	$1,200,000
Georgia Institute of Technology	Atlanta, GA	$1,300,000
Howard University	Washington, DC	$1,600,000
Johns Hopkins University	Baltimore, MD	$1,600,000
Kansas State University	Manhattan, KS	$1,800,000
Lehigh University	Bethlehem, PA	$1,200,000
Louisiana State University and A & M College	Baton Rouge, LA	$1,400,000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Cambridge, MA	$1,400,000
Miami University	Oxford, OH	$1,600,000
Michigan State University	East Lansing, MI	$1,600,000
North Carolina State University	Raleigh, NC	$1,400,000
Northern Arizona University	Flagstaff, AZ	$1,200,000
Oklahoma State University Main Campus	Stillwater, OK	$1,500,000
Oregon State University	Corvallis, OR	$1,800,000
Princeton University	Princeton, NJ	$1,900,000
Purdue University Main Campus	West Lafayette, IN	$1,600,000
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	Troy, NY	$1,600,000
Rice University	Houston, TX	$1,600,000
Stanford University	Stanford, CA	$2,000,000
State University of New York at Stony Brook	Stony Brook, NY	$1,800,000
Temple University	Philadelphia, PA	$1,200,000
Texas Tech University	Lubbock, TX	$2,000,000
University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, AL	$1,600,000
University of Arizona	Tucson, AZ	$2,200,000
University of California-Berkeley	Berkeley, CA	$1,600,000
University of California-Davis	Davis, CA	$1,800,000
University of California-Los Angeles	Los Angeles, CA	$1,400,000
University of California-San Diego	San Diego, CA	$1,400,000
University of Chicago	Chicago, IL	$1,600,000
University of Colorado at Boulder	Boulder, CO	$1,800,000
University of Delaware	Newark, DE	$1,600,000
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Champaign, IL	$1,600,000
University of Iowa	Iowa City, IA	$1,600,000
University of Maryland College Park	College Park, MD	$1,600,000
University of Miami	Coral Gables, FL	$2,000,000
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	Ann Arbor, MI	$1,200,000
University of Montana	Missoula, MT	$1,400,000
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Chapel Hill, NC	$1,600,000
University of Pittsburgh- Pittsburgh Campus	Pittsburgh, PA	$1,800,000
University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus	Rio Piedras, PR	$1,400,000
University of Utah	Salt Lake City, UT	$1,600,000
University of Vermont	Burlington, VT	$1,200,000
University of Virginia	Charlottesville, VA	$1,200,000
University of Washington	Seattle, WA	$1,200,000
Washington University	Saint Louis, MO	$1,600,000
Yale University	New Haven, CT	$1,800,000

	MORE HEADLINES
		RESEARCH NEWS
		07.02.09 |	Study Pinpoints Genetic Drivers of Lung Cancer’s Spread
		07.01.09 |	Multiple Sclerosis: A New Theory for Why Repair of the Brain’s Wiring Fails
		06.24.09 |	Eat Less, Live Longer: Unraveling the Connection