UROP Beckman Scholars Program

Boston University is proud to announce that we have again received an Arnold & Mabel Beckman Foundation Scholars Program Award for the period 2008-2011. This award is funding six students over the period of these three years. Two Beckman Scholars have just been selected, two will be chosen in April 2009, and two in April 2010.

The 2008 Beckman Scholars have been announced and are pictured above. Florencia Rago, a Biochemistry & Molecular Biology major, will be working with Dean Tolan (Biology) on enzyme protein structure and function. Tyler Ford, who is also in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, will be working with Tom Gilmore (Biology) performing research on the molecular basis of lymphoma.

Each student named as a Beckman Scholar performs research activities as part of their academic curriculum during two academic years and full-time over two summers. The award also includes a trip to California to the Beckman Scholars Annual Research Symposium, where each student presents his/her research. Each Beckman Scholar also participates in the Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium hosted by UROP during Parent's Weekend in October. During the summer, the Scholars perform research and participate in enrichment activities scheduled throughout the ten-week period of the program (June - August).

Our three Beckman Scholars of the previous award period graduated in May, 2007: Beth Cimini is now attending graduate school at the University of California, San Francisco; Daniel Bruggemeyer is in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley; and Roy Arjoon is at Boston University School of Medicine. The current Beckman scholars are in their senior years doing research in the Biology Department with Dr Thomas Gilmore (Melissa Chin), Dr Dean Tolan (Michael Coyle) and Dr William Eldred (James Flannery).

The total award amount is $19,300 per student which is broken down in the following manner:

Summer stipend of $6,000 per summer
Academic year stipend of $4,000
Summer travel and supplies scholarship for $850 per summer
Academic travel and supplies scholarship for $1,600
Note: the award does not include housing during the summer!
During your senior academic year UROP will provide the academic year stipend of $4,000

You must satisfy all of the criteria listed below in order to be eligible for this award.

Boston University sophomore
Overall GPA of 3.4 or above
Majoring in Biology, BMB, Chemistry or Biomedical Engineering

Read through the research descriptions and pick three mentors whose research interests you.
Apply using the on-line application form on this site. If you have difficulty to accessing the form please do not hesitate to contact us at urop@bu.edu or 353-2020.
You will need two letters of recommendation from Boston University faculty. Letters may be emailed to urop@bu.edu or sent to the UROP Office.
Application deadline will be in the Spring of 2008 (for recommendations too!).
After all applications have been received they will be ranked and forwarded to the participating faculty members. Individual faculty will contact you for interviews within 3 weeks.
The finalists will then interviewed by the Beckman Scholars Committee.
Awards will be announced sometime in April, 2008.

More information about the Beckman Foundation and their Beckman Scholars Program Awards can be found on their website at: http://www.beckman-foundation.com

Prof. Karen Allen (Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics): Protein structure; biochemistry; X-ray crystallography; aldolase structure, activity and disease

Prof. Gloria Callard (Dept. of Biology): Fish models of development; endocrinology; estrogen receptors; testis development

Prof. John Caradonna (Dept. of Chemistry): Non-heme iron metalloproteins and metalloenzymes; biochemical and medical aspects of iron/pterin-dependent aromatic amino acid hydroxylases; computational methods for rational metalloprotein and metalloenzyme design

Prof. John Celenza (Dept. of Biology): Plant molecular genetics; root development; auxin and glucosinolate synthesis; anti-pest compounds made in plants

Prof. Linda Doerrer (Dept of Chemistry): Organic chemistry; chemical synthesis

Prof. Sean Elliott (Dept of Chemistry): Biochemistry; molecular biology; redox regulation of protein; cysteine-based regulation of proteins; cytochrome c

Prof. Horacio Frydman (Dept of Biology): Host-microbe relationships; bacterial infection mechanisms; Wolbachia infection in insects; molecular biology

Prof. Thomas Gilmore (Dept. of Biology): Molecular biology and cell biology; malignant transformation of cells by retroviruses and human oncogenes; lymphoma/leukemia; structure and function of transcription factors; NF-kB; evolutionary origins of NF-kB in basal marine organisms

Prof. Frank Naya (Dept. of Biology): Molecular genetics of heart development; transgenic mice; molecular biology; transcription factor Mef2a; cardiac disease models; transcriptional control of developmental gene expression

Prof. James Panek (Dept. of Chemistry): Chemical synthesis of natural products; Reaction methodology development; asymmetric synthesis is complemented with total synthesis projects

Prof. John Porco Jr (Dept. of Chemistry): Development of new methodologies for chemical synthesis and their application to synthesis of complex natural products and natural product-like molecules

Prof. Scott Schaus (Dept of Chemistry): Chemical synthesis; gene expression profiling in response to chemical insult; biochemistry and molecular biology; chemical library development

Prof. John Sndyer (Dept of Chemistry): Organic chemistry; chemical synthesis of natural products; chemical ibrary development

Prof. Dean Tolan (Dept. of Biology): Biochemistry, molecular biology, molecular genetics; structure and function of isozymes of aldolase; enzymatic mechanism, quaternary structure, and developmental gene regulation; genetic engineering; human diseases of fructose metabolism; newborn screening; molecular evolution of vertebrate aldolases

Prof. Joyce Wong (Dept. of Biomedical Engineering): Biomaterials, tailoring cell-material interfaces for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications; direct, quantitative measurement of biological interactions