Program for underrepresented minority students inbiomedical PhD programs wins coveted renewal

From left: Rajendram Rajnarayanan, students Anthony Jones and Kerri Pryce, and Margarita L.Dubocovich in a lab in Farber Hall.

From left: Rajendram Rajnarayanan, students Anthony Jones and Kerri Pryce, and Margarita L.Dubocovich in a lab in Farber Hall.

Published June 7, 2017 This content is archived.

UB’s ongoing efforts to recruit underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to its PhD programs have received a major boost from the National Institutes of Health, which renewed a five-year, $2.3 million grant to help fully fund scholarships.

The grant will pay for the first two years of graduate school in the biomedical and behavioral sciences for four students a year. Over the past five years, the program is credited with bringing 20 underrepresented students to UB. And more importantly, it is part of a pipeline of “catalysts” that is helping the university attract underrepresented students to prepare the next generation of scientists and professors.

“These students are highly recruited by other universities,” says Margarita Dubocovich, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and senior associate dean for diversity and inclusion.

The grant is part of the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD), a student development program for research-intensive institutions funded by NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The prestigious grant was awarded to only 21 PhD training programs.

Read more here.