Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant director to speak at UF

September 24, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The head of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s grant program, which distributes almost $700 million annually for scientific research, will speak about science education at the University of Florida Sept. 28.

Peter Bruns, who was named by the institute as vice president for grants and special programs in 2000, was a genetics professor at Cornell University for more than 30 years. While on faculty, he established the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers, a project designed to strengthen high school science education.

His speech at UF will focus on the Hughes institute’s Science Education Alliance, a new program that provides undergraduates across the nation with the knowledge and experience of institute-supported educators to create an authentic research experience.

UF has received five grants from the institute since 1999, totaling approximately $5.3 million, and four of the five were awarded in the last two and a half years.

The Science for Life grant, awarded to UF in June 2006, provides $1.5 million to encourage undergraduate research and outreach to the community. The university is using the money in part to build the HHMI Undergraduate Core Laboratory, more than 2,000 square feet of renovated space in the biomedical engineering building. The portion of the grant being used to fund this facility is being matched by the state.

“The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is one of the pre-eminent contributors to health-related research in the country, and they support science education at all levels, from pre-Kindergarten to post-graduates and university faculty,” said Margaret Atherton, senior director of corporate and foundation relations for the UF Foundation.

The speech is free and open to the public. It will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the University Auditorium.