Investigator Receives Grant to Increase Diversity in Environmental Health Sciences
April 1, 2015
Edited from an original article by Karin Lorentzen, UA College of Pharmacy
Dr. Walt Klimecki, a University of Arizona Superfund Research Program (UA SRP) investigator, was awarded a five-year grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop an environmental health sciences research-training program for UA undergraduate students who are from backgrounds that are under-represented in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. The grant will involve the participation of about 30 faculty members from across the UA, and will support about 30 undergraduate students for a two-year research experience.
The first cohort of nine students will start in labs this summer (2015). One of the students is Benjamin Rivera, an undergraduate student from Douglas, AZ, a mining town on the US-Mexico border, who is currently a student researcher in the laboratory of UA SRP Director and investigator Dr. Raina Maier.
Klimecki, associate professor and associate head of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the UA College of Pharmacy, will co-direct this undergraduate research-education program with Professor Carol Bender of the UA Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the director of the UA Undergraduate Biology and Research Program (UBRP).
“What makes this a win-win endeavor,” says Klimecki, “is that we’re giving students from under-represented groups the opportunity to get inspired by their training in environmental health science, a win for the undergrads. But we win, too. Currently, there are groups missing from the pool of environmental health science researchers: the under-represented groups. And when we miss people from those groups, we miss talent. We can’t afford to miss talent.”
NIH grant number R25-ES025494