Smith College Receives Grant to Fund Students' Biomedical Research

Smith College has received a $70,400 grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, of Irvine, California, that will support the research projects of four Smith students studying in the biomedical sciences.

The grant, which is designated exclusively for students who have committed to producing a senior honors project, will provide scholarships for two students each in the academic years 1999-2000 and 2000-01 as well as for the summer before and after their senior years. In addition to funding travel and laboratory supplies as needed for their research projects, the scholarships will subsidize a summer project for each Beckman Fellow following her graduation from Smith.

Each scholar will work with a faculty mentor in completing her project. Scholarship recipients for 1999-2000 are seniors Gianna Muir-Robinson, of Medway, Massachusetts, who will work with Stefan Bodnarenko, an assistant professor of psychology; and Elizabeth Nolan, of Niskayuna, New York, who will work with Professor of Chemistry Robert Linck.

Scholarship recipients for 2000-01 have not been named. Each Beckman Fellow underwent a competitive internal review process in pursuing the award. All the scholars will be invited as the Beckman Foundation's guests to attend the Beckman Scholars Annual Research Symposium held each summer.

Muir-Robinson, who hopes to pursue a career in medical research, will investigate factors in the development of retinal cells that determine certain properties of visual response. Muir-Robinson plans to apply the technical and analytical experience gained through her research project to the preparation of her senior thesis next year.

Nolan, a chemistry major, will research stereoelectric effects and bond length differentiation in methyl groups. Nolan will use her research materials in the preparation of an honors thesis she will prepare during the academic year. "I am interested in all areas of chemistry, including those pertaining to the biomedical field," Nolan says. "I find many applications of chemistry to biomedical science fascinating."

Smith College was one of only four liberal arts colleges nationally to have received a Beckman grant. Sixteen grants in all were awarded. Besides Smith, other institutions to have received the Beckman grant include Yale, Rice, Furman and Boston universities, Dartmouth, Haverford and Franklin and Marshall colleges and the universities of Texas in Austin, Massachusetts in Amherst, and California in Los Angeles, Irvine and Santa Cruz.

About 30 percent of Smith students major in the sciences.

Smith College, founded in 1871, is consistently ranked among the nation's top liberal arts colleges. Enrolling 2,800 students from every state and 50 other countries, Smith is the largest undergraduate women's college in the United States.

July 1, 1999