Charleston, SC Economic Development

College of Charleston wins $1.5 million science grant

Apr. 22, 2008
Swamp Fox
The College of Charleston has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to develop an innovative curriculum and to support student-faculty research in biomedical sciences. The 4-year award was one of only 48 awards made to universities nationwide, and one of only 12 new awards.

“The College of Charleston is very pleased to be selected by HHMI for this prestigious grant award,” says College of Charleston President P. George Benson. “This grant is national recognition of the College of Charleston’s outstanding undergraduate science and research programs."

With this major grant, the College will develop curriculum and research opportunities in three interdisciplinary areas, Chemical Biology, Neuroscience, and Computational Biology. About one-third of the award will support the development of laboratory courses in these three disciplines. A new faculty member will be hired in each of the three areas both to facilitate program development and to provide additional research opportunities for students. About 25 other faculty-student research teams will also be supported for summer research.

The College will also develop “Learning Communities” devoted to interdisciplinary science for selected entering freshmen. The goal is to build interest in research and in careers in biomedical science at a much earlier stage of a student’s career.

The proposal also supports pre-college education by providing funds to equip science laboratories at Burke High School, by developing activities for Brain Awareness Week and National Chemistry Week, by supporting additional training opportunities for area teachers, and by supplementing educational materials in the Lowcountry Hall of Science and Mathematics, the College’s pK-12 science and math outreach center.

A pilot teaching-training program will also be coordinated with the Medical University of South Carolina so that graduate students and post-doctoral researchers at MUSC can have opportunities for mentoring in the classroom by College of Charleston faculty members.

HHMI sponsors the Undergraduate Science Education Competition every four years and invites only those institutions with a strong record of placing graduates in medical schools and Ph.D. programs to participate in the competition. The College’s proposal was one of 192 submitted for the 2008 competition.

HHMI is the nation's largest private supporter of science education. It has invested more than $1.2 billion in grants to reinvigorate life science education at both research universities and liberal arts colleges and to engage the nation's leading scientists in teaching.

The grant proposal was coordinated by Dr. Norine Noonan, Dean of the School of Sciences and Mathematics. The proposal team was led by Dr. Pamela Riggs-Gelasco, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and included Dr. Elizabeth Meyer-Bernstein, Assistant Professor of Biology, Dr. Mark Hurd, Associate Professor of Psychology, Dr. Sorinel Oprisan, Assistant Professor of Physics, and Dr. Meta Van Sickle, Associate Professor of Foundations, Secondary and Special Education.

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