MEDIA CONTACT: Megan Fellman at (847) 491-3115 or fellman@northwestern.edu

April 13, 2004

Life Sciences Bridge Program Helps Minorities

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Minorities are underrepresented in the number of graduates receiving doctorates in the life sciences across the country, which in turn results in too few minorities attaining faculty positions at universities and colleges.

To address this problem, Northwestern University and Chicago State University have developed a “bridge” master’s degree program, funded by a $600,000 grant spanning three years from the National Institutes of Health, to help minority students from the Chicago area make the critical transition from undergraduate student to Ph.D. candidate.

“Diversity on campus and in the classroom makes for a richer learning environment for everyone,” said Robert MacDonald, professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology at Northwestern, who was principle investigator on the grant application and is overseeing the Northwestern portion of the new program.

The program targets promising students whose undergraduate preparation is insufficient for admission to high-quality doctoral programs (often for good reasons or due to unavoidable circumstances such as a lack of relevant courses or an inadequate grade point average due to the need to work full time) but who nonetheless aspire to earn a Ph.D. degree and have the necessary ability and dedication to complete the program.

Working together, Northwestern and Chicago State are seeking to provide students with the academic skills, laboratory training and familiarity with the Ph.D. program environment that will allow motivated students to complete, with distinction, the doctoral program at Northwestern or a similar institution.

While earning a master’s degree at Chicago State, students in the program (there are currently two) work as research laboratory assistants and are paid a stipend. During their second year each student spends one quarter at Northwestern taking courses and working in a lab with a Ph.D. student whose research is related to each master student’s thesis. In addition to the stipends, both schools waive tuition to free students from worry about finances.