FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 20, 2005

Contact: Shirley Melikian Armbruster

559.278.5292 or 559.593.1815

A four-year, $1.3-million-grant from the National Institutes of Health to California State University, Fresno will boost opportunities for students interested in biomedical research. The grant will allow development of a Minority Biomedical Research Support - Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement Program, called RISE for short.

While the program’s specific purpose is to enhance the research environment at minority-serving institutions, its overall goal is to increase the interest, skills and competitiveness of students and faculty in pursuit of biomedical research careers.

Five undergraduate and three graduate students at Fresno State were named to the first RISE cohort this fall. Undergraduate students include Benjamin Hyatt of Clovis, a chemistry major; David Sischo of Coarsegold (biology); Sean Thompson of Lemoore (biology); Gerson Uc-Basulto of Salinas (chemistry); and Paula Wright of Fresno (health economics). Graduate students selected are Nick Blanchard of Clovis, Natalie Powers of Palmdale and Carlos Tristan of Oxnard. All are biology majors.

The annual fellowships are $18,000 for graduate RISE Scholars and $10,000 for their undergraduate counterparts; each scholar will receive the annual fellowship for two years.

RISE Scholars participate in a graduate school examination prep course, a graduate school application workshop, other research-related technical workshops and guidance through their specific research experience.

The grant, a first for Fresno State, was awarded jointly to the College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Health and Human Services. Biology professor Dr. Alejandro Calderón-Urrea is the principal investigator.

Other faculty members who have been involved are Dr. Lenore Yousef, biology; Dr. Alice Wright, biology, program director; Dr. Jim Prince, graduate coordinator, biology; Dr. Saeed Attar, undergraduate coordinator of the chemistry department; and Dr. Sharon Brown-Welty, assessment coordinator of the Department of Educational Research and Administration.

Students chosen as RISE Scholars are required to sign contracts agreeing to participate in research and RISE activities, complete their B.S. (or M.S.) degree in two years, and apply to at least one Ph.D. program by the end of the two years.

Information about applying for the second student cohort will become available in January 2006.

(Copy by University Communications student-intern Megan Jacobsen.)