Student Support: Investing in the Future
Graduate Fellowships
The path towards greatness for research-oriented departments in science begins with the
faculty. However, having the best graduate students, who perform cutting-edge research,
is critical to transforming the department from “very good” to “sustainably excellent”.
The importance of having an outstanding and diverse pool of graduate students to
enhance both our educational and research missions cannot be overstated. It can take a
Graduate student fellowships and undergraduate scholarships will attract the best and brightest to our department.
World-class students are essential to world-class research programs.
generation or more for the reputation of a department to match its quality; Texas is not
automatically included among the schools to which the finest students routinely apply
for graduate study. Furthermore, the schools with whom we compete offer these students
attractive, multi-year financial packages that enable them to focus on their research. We
must be aggressive to recruit these students in this fiercely competitive environment.
To increase the visibility of our program and to be competitive with the best departments
in the country we seek to establish 30 Endowed Presidential Fellowships, at least 10 of
which will be endowed at significantly higher levels than $100,000. When combined
with other sources of support, these fellowships will enable us to offer some of the best
packages in the country for supporting graduate students in chemistry and biochemistry.
Not only will this approach attract better students in the short run, our graduates who
go on to careers in academia will likely include Texas among the schools they recommend
to their students for graduate study, thereby increasing the number of excellent students
who apply to our program in the long term.
Undergraduate Scholarships
Scholarships often make the difference that enable students to follow their passion and then
pursue their dreams upon graduation. A solid foundation in chemistry or biochemistry
can lead to graduate or professional education and careers in science, engineering, the
health profession, and even business or law. Scholarship support allows students to focus
on their coursework and to conduct undergraduate research, freeing them from the need
for part-time employment. Support of this kind is essential if we are to increase diversity
in the pool of scientific and technical professionals, an important national goal.
Having a scholarship often enables undergraduates to participate in research, an
indispensable opportunity that provides them with an exciting hands-on experience that
brings science to life. The laboratory is the real classroom – the site of the application
of the scientific method, the practice of techniques described in textbooks, and the
solidification of knowledge obtained in various courses. This type of learning environment
stimulates intellectual curiosity and creativity, enhances critical thinking and problem-
solving skills, and promotes teamwork in an environment comprising professors, research
We seek to establish 50 new Endowed Scholarships and Endowed Presidential Scholarships. Achieving this goal
will allow us to support almost 10% of our nearly 1000 undergraduate majors—the best and the brightest for
whom a chemistry or biochemistry degree might not be possible without financial assistance.
scientists, postdoctoral associates, and other students having different backgrounds,
cultures, and professional expertise. To enhance their educational experience, the
department encourages these undergraduates to participate in conferences and present
their research; this can be a life-changing experience. Integrating experiences of this
kind, particularly having the opportunity to work in teams, will prepare our students
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well for their future work environments in which teamwork is now the norm.
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