BY MIRIAM SMITH
The Cincinnati Enquirer
OXFORD -- Miami University has been awarded a prestigious $1.6 million grant for its biological research programs, it was announced Tuesday. Miami was one of 58 schools nationwide and one of two in Ohio to be awarded a four-year grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a medical research organization.
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland also received a grant.
"It provides a level of excellence that we could not achieve without this influx of money," said William Rauckhorst, associate provost for scholarship and teaching. "It's a level of excellence that is very, very gratifying."
The university will benefit in four areas from the grant, he said.
The first is in undergraduate summer research. The university also expects to involve students from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Delhi Township, Thomas More College in Crestview Hills and Earlham College in Richmond, Ind.
The university also has an agreement with Eli Lilly and Proctor & Gamble through which research projects will be done by three students at each company, Mr. Rauckhorst said.
The grant also will enable the university to improve teaching laboratory equipment in the microbiology, zoology, botany, and chemistry and biochemistry departments, he said.
Last, the university will build a relationship with students and faculty at the Cincinnati Academy of Math and Sciences, he said. Miami is one of 20 schools to receive the undergraduate sciences grant each of the three times it has been offered.
"This really does make an incredible difference in the way they can teach in the laboratories and work with students in and out of the classrooms," said Holly Wissing, university spokeswoman.
