HHMI: Educating Tomorrow's Scientists
Scientists and educators alike can benefit from a dynamic dialogue. To encourage and strengthen that sort of dialogue, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded a grant to the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) to help develop the new electronic journal, Cell Biology Education, providing $95,000 annually for three years. Stephen A. Barkanic, director of the undergraduate science education program at HHMI, and Dennis W.C. Liu, director of the Institute's public science education initiative, have agreed to serve on the Cell Biology Education Editorial Board.
HHMI's decision to provide partial funding for the new electronic journal was based largely on the ASCB's commitment to integrating the worlds of science education and research. As discussed by Samuel Ward in his editorial accompanying this issue of the journal, the goals of CBE are threefold: create an outlet for publication of educationally focused, peer-reviewed articles; provide a dynamic forum for discussion of pedagogical issues; and recognize and reward educational scholarship. These goals reflect HHMI's mission of strengthening science education at all levels, enabling the ASCB to forge an alliance with HHMI to create and promote the journal during its start-up phase.
A University of Miami undergraduate and her faculty mentor screen for mutants in the alga Chlamydomonas.
One of the world's leading life-sciences philanthropies, HHMI employs hundreds of biomedical scientists working at the forefront of their fields. Through its grants and fellowships programs, the Institute has awarded more than $1 billion in science-education grants since 1988. These competitive awards support science education from preschool through postdoctoral training, as well as public science literacy. A new HHMI Professors program aims to develop a cadre of faculty members at research universities who are leaders in both research and education. Twenty HHMI professors will be named to receive four-year grants of $1 million each in fall 2002.
HHMI grantees around the nation are looking forward to sharing information about their programs and those of other science educators in a venue that reaches both the research and science-education communities.
For more information on HHMI science education grant programs, see www.hhmi.org/grants.
