ABSTRACT

1
ABSTRACT
The Biotechnology (BTP) and Molecular Biosciences
(MBTG) NIH pre-doctoral training grants at
UW-Madison together support 65 graduate students
from a variety of Ph.D. programs spanning 25
different departments. Because neither
interdepartmental training program directly
admits students, a variety of mechanisms are used
to encourage minority students to apply and
matriculate to the participating Ph.D. programs.
These include 1) recruiting visits by member
faculty to campuses with high proportions of
minority students and to minority research
symposia, 2) personal contact between member
faculty and students accepted for admission to
participating programs, and 3) active involvement
of minority students and faculty in recruiting of
minority candidates. Our efforts are enhanced by
numerous campus initiatives. These include
programs that engage undergraduate minority
students in summer research projects with faculty
trainers, financial support for trainer visits to
the home institutions of the summer students, and
inter-institutional linkages with predominantly
minority universities. In addition, funds
provided by the state of Wisconsin and the
UW-Madison Graduate School allow us to supplement
training grant support with 1-2 year Advanced
Opportunity Fellowships for all minority
students. Minority graduate student retention is
facilitated by a combination of careful progress
tracking both by the training program and the
students Ph.D. program, volunteer mentoring by
senior graduate students, and weekly interaction
between program faculty and trainees at a
mandatory student seminar series.
2
Sources of trainees for NIGMS training grants at
UW-Madison
Applicant Pool
gt30 Ph. D. Programs
Physical Sciences
Biochemistry
Biomolecular Chemistry
Cell Mol Biology
Microbiology
Genetics
Training Grants (9)
MSTP
BTP
Genetics
MBTG
3
Fraction of underrepresented students among
training grant-eligible applicants to the four
major Ph.D. programs that supply trainees to the
BTP and MBTG (Biochemistry, Biomolecular
Chemistry, Cellular Molecular Biology,
Microbiology)
Representative Training Grant Applicant Pool
4
Underrepresented students joining the
Biotechnology (BTP) and Molecular Biosciences
(MBTG) Training Grants
Minority students entering program
Year
(27 total students join the two programs each
year)
5
Initiatives for enhancing minority recruitment

• On-campus high school and undergraduate feeder
  programs (URS, REU, SRP-BIO).
• Faculty visits to minority institutions and
  research symposia.
• Training grant recruiting activities (Biotech.
  banquet, faculty contacts).
• Advanced Opportunity Fellowships sponsored by
  Graduate School/State.

6
Initiatives for enhancing minority retention

• Tutors (Campus/Ph. D. Program)
• Partners for Success (Campus/Ph. D. Program)
• Progress tracking (Program/Training Grant)
• Weekly trainee gatherings (Training Grant)