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A new graduate student training program at Rice aims to give
researchers the skills necessary to work in an integrative environment
and produce innovative and cost-effective biotechnological products
in the 21st century.
It’s the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship
(IGERT) program in cellular engineering at Rice, funded by a $2.45
million National Science Foundation grant. The five-year research
training program, with its emphasis on the interdisciplinary aspect
of research, will support 10 Ph.D. students each year. It focuses
on metabolic and tissue engineering and provides science and engineering
students with rigorous educational and research training in the
fields of bioengineering, biochemistry, and cell biology. Scientific
ethics, advanced laboratory skills, basic biosciences such as biochemistry
and cell biology, and engineering systems analysis are included
in the fundamental curriculum.
One of the most important aspects of this program, says principal
investigator Larry McIntire, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Chemical
and Biomedical Engineering and chair of Rice’s Institute of
Biosciences and Bioengineering, is that students will have advisers
from both the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of
Biochemistry and Cell Biology. “This new kind of training
will bring about new kinds of thinking,” he says.
Student trainees will form teams to work on design projects and
will participate in an industrial internship program with companies
involved in cellular engineering. Graduate students in biochemistry
and cell biology and bioengineering are eligible for nomination
to the program.
The IGERT program also will establish a visiting scientist position
and a seminar series that will focus on different themes each year.
Continued expansion of Rice’s successful undergraduate recruitment
program for underrepresented minorities to pursue graduate education
in cellular engineering is another key component of the effort.
“These kinds of grants are very nice,” McIntire says,
“because they provide the basis of support for cross-disciplinary
research programs, and they provide stipends for graduate students
to work in these emerging areas.”
In its fourth year, IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet
the challenges of educating Ph.D. scientists and engineers with
the multi-disciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional,
and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future.
Other 2001 IGERT grant recipients include Northwestern University,
University of California–Los Angeles, University of Texas–Austin,
and Georgia Institute of Technology.
—Lia Unrau
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