Bioengineering Grad Students To Begin Receiving Whitaker Foundation Support

The Whitaker Foundation currently is in the process of selecting as many as 30 students out of the 122 who applied for the $27,000 in stipends, plus education and travel expenses for use during graduate studies at institutions offering engineering degrees (preferably those with concentrations in biomedical engineering). The grantees will be an- nounced by March 31, and when the program is in full swing four years from now, a total of up to 150 students will hold grants. Peter Katona, the foundation's vice president of biomedical engineering programs, says that each applicant must be "exceptionally well qualified." Because the required qualifications are so high, he says, foundation officials may decide not to give this many grants if fewer than 30 applicants are deemed sufficiently meritorious. In general, though, Katona says it should not be too difficult to find students who meet the foundation's rigorous criteria because biomedical engineering students are typically the cream of the engineering crop. "People who are willing to study biology on top of engineering are extraordinarily motivated," he says. Candidates will be chosen on the basis of prior academic performance and commitment to the field of biomedical engineering. While no personal interviews are involved, applications must include transcripts, proposed study and research plans, reasons for selecting particular departments or programs, three letters of recommendation, and Graduate Record Examination scores. The application deadline for next year's round of fellowships will be late this year. In another new move, the foundation has shifted its biomedical engineering program office to Washington, D.C. The main foundation headquarters remains in Mechanicsburg, home of AMP Inc., a manufacturer of electrical connectors founded by U.A. Whitaker, who died in 1975 and established the foundation bearing his name through a bequest in his will. The foundation continues to participate in philanthropic activities in the Mechanicsburg area, but moving biomedical engineering to the nation's capital allows Whitaker to be at the hub of national funding activity. In addition, people with foundation business can combine a stop at the foundation offices with other Washington visits. A major expansion of the foundation's three-year-old development awards program is also under way, Katona says. Biomedical engineering departments at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington were the first to each begin receiving a total of $5 million in grants spread over five years. The grants are designed to pump up the educational aspect of biomedical engineering programs at departments that were already quite strong. Later this year, the foundation will select two more universities for development grants. The focus of the development grants will be also on education, reflecting the foundation's belief that it can get more value out of its efforts by providing graduate educational and research opportunities than by directly funding basic research. Katona says the overriding goal of the foundation is to have a national impact on biomedical engineering, one that goes well beyond elevating the quality of a single institution. This is why the Whitaker emphasis is on teaching and "the development of bright young people," he says. Lee Huntsman, director of the Center for Bioengineering at the University of Washington, says that "this development grant has had a tremendous impact on our program, but not in any `rescue-it-from-the-dumps' sort of sense. It allowed us to really launch a major initiative in a new direction, by adding a molecular bioengineering thrust." He says that following notification of the grant, the center received an initial $1 million to bring on board a protein engineer, as well as specialists in molecular modeling and in molecular assemblies. The center has also used the money to build core labs for grad students and basic researchers and to revise curriculum. Under the terms of the grant, the center will receive an additional $500,000 per year in ongoing support. The foundation was a catalyst for the new molecular thrust because it has allowed the center to receive money and facilities from the university. Murray Sachs, a professor in and the director of the department of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, says that the Whitaker grant came at a time when the department was already 25 years old and had been rated one of the top biomedical engineering departments in the country, with 11 full-time faculty and 20 other secondary appointments. "Despite this, the award actually had an enormous impact on our program," Sachs says. In the year prior to applying for the award, the department had developed a plan for enhancing its educational program. The Whitaker award dovetailed with this plan and allowed the department to move ahead swiftly into new areas: molecular and cellular systems physiology, systems neurophysiology, and biomedical sensors. "In each of these program areas we hired a faculty member, that is, a faculty member we would not have been able to hire without Whitaker around," Sachs says, adding that the foundation is supporting postdoctoral positions as well. Providing financial leverage to an awardee is an important aspect of this and any other major grant, Sachs says. Following the Whitaker award, it then was up to Johns Hopkins to fulfill its pre-award promise to supply the department with $500,000 in research start-up money and provide an even more attractive commodity--7,000 square feet of lab and office space. "Research space is the most precious commodity at this and any other institution," he says. Another example of leverage that extends beyond the bounds of the biomedical engineering department has been a $3 million grant from National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders that went to the Center for Hearing and Balance. The center had proposed a training program based on courses already being funded by Whitaker under the development grant program. Thus, Whitaker has essentially leveraged its money, according to Sachs. Because the maximum length of the development grant is five years, the future is a bit uncertain, Sachs says. The department is committed to retaining all the newly added faculty even after the Whitaker grant runs its term, but will be faced with possibly dwindling government support for research. Private donors and foundation grants could be a future source of support, Sachs says. For more information about the Whitaker Foundation, contact Peter Katona at (202) 833-6920.

Bioengineering Grad Students To Begin Receiving Whitaker Foundation Support

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