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March 29, 1999
By Tim Stephens
The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation has named UCSC one of 16 institutions to receive Beckman Scholars Awards for 1999-2000. The award of $70,400 enables the campus to offer four undergraduate research scholarships.
The Beckman Scholars Program recognizes outstanding undergraduate students in chemistry, biochemistry, and biological and medical sciences. The scholarships will support undergraduate research activities to be performed part-time during one academic year and full-time during one or two summers.
"The Beckman Scholars award recognizes the outstanding quality of our undergraduate research program in the natural sciences and its faculty mentors," said Thomas Schleich, professor and chair of chemistry and biochemistry.
Students will be named as Beckman Scholars in the spring of their sophomore or junior years. One of the UCSC scholarships is designated for a community college transfer student. UCSC can either award all four scholarships in spring 1999, with research work to begin this summer, or award two scholarships this spring and two in spring 2000.
Each Beckman Scholar will work under the guidance of a faculty mentor. An annual research symposium will be held each summer for Beckman Scholars who have completed their research activities.
"These scholarships will enable distinguished students to engage in significant research at the frontiers of science," Schleich said.
Ten UCSC faculty members--five from the Department of Biology and five from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry--have offered to serve as mentors for Beckman Scholars. Each will nominate a student for the award and sponsor the application, and the ten faculty members will collectively evaluate the applications and make the final selections.
The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, based in Irvine, CA, is an independent nonprofit foundation supporting scientific research and education. The Beckman Scholars Program was started in 1997.