Haverford Wins $1.4 Million Grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute

When the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) issued a challenge to 224 undergraduate colleges across the country to identify creative new ways of engaging students in biological sciences, Haverford College answered the call…and was rewarded.

In response to a proposal Haverford submitted in October, HHMI has awarded the College a grant of $1,400,000, as part of the 2008 Undergraduate Science Education Grants Competition. Haverford is one of 48 institutions across the United States to receive grants totaling $60 million over a four-year period.

Since 1988, Haverford has received approximately $5.85 million from HHMI. This support has helped the College sustain several decades of innovation and excellence in the teaching of undergraduate science.

John Mosteller, Assistant Vice President for Academic Resources, notes,“This year's HHMI competition was intense, and we are delighted that Haverford has succeeded in securing its sixth consecutive grant.”

“HHMI has had a profound impact on Haverford College and has fundamentally changed many aspects of the character of our institution,” says Associate Professor of Biology and HHMI faculty advisor Rob Fairman.“We are particularly excited about the ability to fund many different programmatic elements that cohere around our new initiatives in scientific computing.  HHMI funding will support faculty development seminars, curricular innovation, teaching [postdoctoral fellows], and outreach, all centered on computer sciences and scientific computing applications in chemistry and biology.”

The HHMI grant will also allow Haverford to continue support for programs like Interdisciplinary Scholars and Multicultural Scholars, which give students opportunities to conduct graduate-level research in professors' labs.

-Brenna McBride