Colby's leadership in teaching natural sciences to undergraduates got a boost this summer when the College received a four-year $800,000 award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). This award for undergraduate biological science education was the third major grant the College has received since 1991 from HHMI, the nation's largest private supporter of science education. Only 53 of more than 200 schools that applied received grants.

The HHMI grant provides funding for laboratory instruments and computers as well as money to hire an immunologist to expand Colby's cell and molecular biology/biochemistry curriculum. It funds student research assistantships and attendance at national science meetings, and it makes possible programs on career opportunities in biology. The award will allow Colby to bring nationally recognized speakers on challenges of women scientists to campus and to host a regional workshop on gender issues in science.

In addition this award supports the continuation of a highly effective partnership program, begun with the first HHMI grant, which has improved secondary science education in four local school systems by providing lab and computer equipment for area schools as well as workshops and courses for teachers. Colby's science partnership with area schools even funds replacement teachers so that high school science teachers can take college and university courses to keep up with the changes in their fields.

HHMI's latest undergraduate awards, totaling $50.3 million, were designed to help institutions that grant bachelor's and master's degrees respond to a recent surge in enrollments in the biological sciences as well as to rapid advances in molecular biology, genetics and related life sciences.