Two Awards Confirm Maryland's Rising Status

When University of Maryland demonstrates broad-ranging excellence in a staggering variety of disciplines, Terps everywhere can share in the achievements.

Maryland earned two diverse grants this summer from nationally recognized foundations. The College of Chemical and Life Sciences triumphed in an amazing fourth bid for a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) award worth $2 million over five years. The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center garnered $1.125 million in endowment and operating funds from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF).

Maryland Senior Anahi Rivera ’07 is one of more than 400 undergraduates who have carried out research with faculty mentors under the College of Chemical and Life Sciences’ Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant.

The DDCF award is the single largest foundation grant ever received at the center. It will be used to expand campus partnerships and resident artist programs that introduce audiences to the creative process. Chemical and Life Sciences will use its funding to grow initiatives that bring underrepresented groups into the lab and generally increase science literacy.

“Our HHMI program,” says Dean Norma Allewell, “begins with camps for middle and high school students, then continues with a catalyst seminar for incoming freshmen—many of whom will eventually compete for research fellowships also sponsored by the grant.” These independent research fellowships are conducted in association with faculty mentors and can last up to three years.

But the size of these awards is only half the story. Both grant applications were by invitation only, from organizations that demanded strong proof of merit. Competition was stiff.

Chemical and Life Sciences vied with more than 150 institutions, including Princeton and Yale, for one of 50 Hughes awards. Allewell believes that the college’s integrated approach, committed faculty and general reputation for quality impressed the foundation, which “prizes intellectual daring.”

The DDCF discovered an ample supply of intellectual daring at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Of the 100 universities in its original survey, only Maryland, Illinois and Michigan made it to the winner’s circle.

“Programs like The American Piano, which brought together visiting artists, faculty and students have focused attention on our unusual mission to make the Clarice Smith Center a place of learning, exploration and growth,” says the Center’s Executive Director Susie Farr. Maryland’s achievements in research, the arts and more have drawn attention to the entire university. Grants from institutions like the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation prove that Maryland has indeed become a renaissance university. —MW

Want to learn more?

Join the University of Maryland Alumni Association now to automatically receive Terp Magazine and to stay connected to the University of Maryland community.