Fund Will Administer A $1 Million Educational Program
NASA has selected the United Negro College Fund Special
Programs Corp. of Falls Church, VA, to administer a $1 million
career development and educational program designed to address the
critical shortage of U.S. minority students in science and
engineering fields.
The NASA Astrobiology Institute's (NAI) Minority Institution
Research Support (MIRS) program in Moffett Field, CA, is providing
the funding for the four-year effort. The program will provide
opportunities for up to four faculty members and eight students
from minority-serving institutions to partner with astrobiology
investigators. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution,
distribution and the future of life on Earth and the potential for
life elsewhere.
"Providing new education opportunities for minority students
will both enrich lives and answer a critical need for proficiency
in science and engineering," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
said. "But just as importantly, the program is an investment to
cultivate imaginative thinking about the field of
astrobiology."
The United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corp. will use
its extensive database of 14,000 registrants to develop an online
community to provide webinars, virtual training and
videoconferences, and provide outreach and recruitment for program
participants. The program's objective is to engage more teachers
from under-represented schools in astrobiology research and
increase the number of students pursuing careers in
astrobiology.
"Our nation's underserved populations are a tremendous resource
on which we must draw, not just for science, but for everything we
do," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute.
"We are extremely pleased that the NAI MIRS program will continue
contributing under the leadership of such a strong and experienced
partner."
Founded in 1998, NAI is a partnership between NASA, 14 U.S.
teams of universities and other organizations, and six
international consortia. NAI's goals are to promote, conduct, and
lead interdisciplinary astrobiology research, train a new
generation of astrobiology researchers, and share the excitement of
the field. NAI is part of NASA's Astrobiology Program at the
agency's headquarters in Washington. The institute initiated the
MIRS program in 2002 as part of its mission to help train a new
generation of researchers in astrobiology and increase diversity
within the astrobiology community.