GAANN Award made to College of Egr/College of Nat Sci

posted Jun 27, 2010, 12:41 PM by Jon Sticklen [ updated Jul 11, 2010, 6:40 PM ]

A Graduate Assistantships for Areas of National Need (GAANN) has been awarded to an cross-college group head by ChE Professor, Mark Worden (right). Scott Barton (left), also a faculty member in ChE, is a CoPI on the award.

GAANN awards are made by the United States Department of Education.

The purpose of this project is to increase the US research and teaching capacity in the emerging field of bioelectronics. Michigan State University (MSU) is leveraging its critical mass of research and teaching expertise in three national-need areas related to bioelectronics (engineering, biology, and physics) through an Interdisciplinary Training Program on Bioelectronics (ITPB),

This training program builds on the existing Ph.D. programs in four academic departments at Michigan State University:

Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (CHEMS),
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics (MMG),
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB), and
Physics and Astronomy (PA).

The standard Ph.D. requirements of the students’ home departments are supplemented by

additional coursework selected to provide a broad, multidisciplinary background relevant to bioelectronics,
formal training in college teaching, and
a mentored college teaching experience.

The specific goals of this project are

To produce a diverse group of Ph.D. scientists and engineers having broad interdisciplinary training related to bioelectronics.
To train program graduates to work effectively in multidisciplinary research teams.
To train program graduates to teach effectively in a college setting.
To increase the percentage of underrepresented students in the participating departments’ graduate programs.
To increase the graduation rate of underrepresented students in the participating departments’ graduate programs.
The GAANN project is slated to start on in August, 2010. For more details contact Mark Worden.

The role of CEER in the project is to evaluate the educational components of the project and to provide infrastructure support.