Calvin Earns Prestigious Science Grant

February 22 , 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Calvin College is one of 15 institutions across the country to land a prestigious grant which will fund faculty-student scientific research.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/merck-aaas.htm

Calvin College has landed a three-year, $60,000 grant from Merck-AAAS to fund faculty-student research partnerships.

This is the second time Calvin has been chosen for the grant program funded by pharmaceutical company Merck and the American Association for the Advancement of Science or AAAS (the publisher of Science magazine).

"This is how science is done these days, crossing the disciplines," says chemistry professor Eric Arnoys of the collaboration. "You still have people who are experts in their areas, but they're working together."

They're also working with students, which is the point of the Merck-AAAS program.

"It's good for our students,” says Arnoys of the faculty-student partnerships. "It gives them a broad exposure to research. At this point, most of them don't know what they'll be doing, and this gives them an opportunity to see a vast variety of things."

Four projects, each pairing two professors with two student researchers, will be funded through the Merck-AAAS program. The topics range from how some bacteria protect themselves from a potent biocide that effectively kills most bacteria to the effects of cholesterol on two important cellular functions.

Arnoys says faculty are also big winners through the Merck-AAAS program.

"It does give us fresh ideas, and we enjoy working with the students. It's one of the reasons many of us came to Calvin."

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/merck-aaas.htm

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Received on Thu Feb 22 09:30:14 2007