HOLLAND - Hope College has received a fourth consecutive award for student research from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation of Irvine, Calif.

Hope is one of only 14 institutions nationwide to receive a "Beckman Scholar Award" for 2005. Hope also received awards in 1998, the year that the program began, and 2000 and 2002.

The foundation established the Beckman Scholars Program to enhance the training of the nation's most talented and gifted undergraduates in chemistry and the biological sciences by providing sustained, in-depth laboratory research experiences with faculty mentors. The recipient colleges and universities were chosen out of an initial pool of nearly 800 institutions across the country.

"The 14 2005 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," said Jacqueline Dorrance, the foundation's executive director.

The $70,400 award to Hope will support a total of four students across the next three years as they conduct research in biology, biochemistry/molecular biology or chemistry. The award will support the students as they conduct research with faculty members full-time during two summers and part-time during the intervening school year.

The students will be biology, biochemistry/molecular biology or chemistry majors who will be juniors at the start of the school year following their initial summer experience. They will be expected to stay involved in research at Hope as seniors.

In addition to providing stipends for the students, the award also includes funding for related supplies and travel. The foundation hosts an annual research symposium for the program's student scholars and their faculty mentors each summer.

The Beckman Scholars are among scores of students who conduct research campuswide at Hope during both the summer and the school year. During the college's annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Performance held in January, the college featured such work by more than 180 students.

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation was established in 1977. The foundation supports leading-edge research in chemistry and the life sciences, and fosters the invention of methods, instruments and materials to open new avenues of research and application in those disciplines and related sciences. The foundation's support of education ranges from programs for elementary-age students to support for young scientists engaged in research at universities and research institutes.

This year's proposal from Hope was written and submitted by Dr. Michael Silver, who is the Frederich Garrett and Helen Floor Dekker Professor of Biomedicine and Chemistry at Hope. In addition to Hope, the colleges and universities to receive Beckman Scholars Program Awards for 2005 are: Boston University, Bowdoin College, California State University at Los Angeles, Colorado State University, Furman University, Havordford College, North Carolina State University, San Francisco State University, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of Delaware, the University of Kentucky, the University of Minnesota and the University of Pittsburgh.

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