Three Colorado State Students Named Beckman Scholars

Three undergraduate students at Colorado State University have been named Beckman Scholars for 2001, with an additional three to be named for the 2002 academic year.

The honor – Colorado State is the first institution of higher education in the state to receive a Beckman Scholars Program Award-will support research work this summer, during the 2001-02 academic year and during the summer of 2002, according to Thomas Sneider, associate dean of the College of Natural Sciences.

Departments involved are biochemistry and molecular biology, chemistry and microbiology. Colorado State was one of 14 institutions nationwide selected from 798 that were eligible.

"This demonstrates the University’s commitment to integrating research into undergraduate education," Sneider said. "It provides the Beckman Scholars with a super leg up on future work, whether it be for professional school, industry or graduate school."

The three winners are Nicholas L. Baird, a microbiology major who will work with Christine Wilcox of that department; Sonia K. Morgan, a microbiology major who will work with assistant professor John Belisle; and Karen R. Mowrer, a biochemistry and molecular biology major working with department chair and professor Norman Curthoys.

Sneider said the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation’s gift came after extensive review of the 14 winning institutions and reflected Colorado State’s ongoing commitment to undergraduate research. Other universities receiving awards included Cal Tech, Dartmouth College, University of California-Berkeley, Notre Dame and Yale.

Jacqueline Dorrance, executive director of the foundation, said, "The fourteen 2001 Beckman Scholars Program Institutional Award recipients have convincingly demonstrated excellence, distinction and distinctiveness in their undergraduate research capabilities and commitments as well as in their plans and activities for their Beckman Scholars."

Colorado State, for example, sponsors an annual spring Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium; Mowrer won an award from the College of Natural Sciences during the past spring semester for her presentation at the symposium.

Each of the three recipients will receive scholarship awards for the two summers and school year, and they and their faculty mentors will attend the Beckman Scholars Annual Research Symposium.

The program allows the University to appoint an additional three Beckman Scholars in 2002.