Funding Support for Training Students and Enhancing Diversity

            Over the past five years, Biochemistry has achieved remarkable, sustained success at increasing the diversity of PhD students working within our department. Currently, over 30% of Biochemistry students come from racial/ethnic backgrounds that are strongly underrepresented in the sciences, including black (African or African American), Hispanic/Latin American, Native American, and Pacific Islander. This diversity is a reflection of the broader success of our umbrella Bioscience PhD Programs and the dedicated efforts of faculty, students, and staff across many departments at enhancing and supporting the diversity of our incoming PhD-student body. Our ability to recruit these diverse students to Biochemistry also reflects the scientific excellence and the positive and inclusive mentoring environment within our department that we have worked hard to achieve and strive to continue improving.

            Achieving equitable diversity and creating an inclusive training environment that fosters the scientific and professional success of Biochemistry PhD students are core values of our department and a key part of our mission and identity. This diversity has also introduced important opportunities to enhance the funding and training support available to our students, especially those coming from underrepresented (UR) backgrounds. Multiple training awards and fellowships from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) target or prioritize support of diverse students from UR backgrounds. These awards include individual predoctoral fellowships from the NIH and NSF, diversity supplements to existing NIH research grants, and individual fellowships on institutional NIH T32 training grants.

            Since 2018, students in our department from UR backgrounds have been awarded over $1 million in training fellowships. Beyond the tangible financial benefit of such awards, these grants in most cases require the mentor and student to assemble a detailed training and development plan customized to each applicant. Although assembly of these plans involves considerable time and thoughtful effort, such tools are an invaluable mechanism to foster the scientific training success and professional development of each student. We would like to highlight the Biochemistry students from UR backgrounds who have received training awards since 2018.

            The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is one of the most selective and prestigious graduate science fellowships in the country. Although science and engineering students in main-campus departments at the University of Utah have enjoyed historic success at winning NSF GRFP awards, students in our health-sciences labs have had difficulty attracting such fellowships. In 2020, we were thrilled to learn that Biochemistry student Faith Bowman was awarded the coveted three-year NSF fellowship. Faith is also the current president of our Utah chapter of SACNAS, a national organization that fosters the professional development and inclusive success of UR scientists. In 2021, our Utah SACNAS chapter was awarded a national “Chapter of the Year” distinction in recognition of the transformative chapter impact. In 2022, Shai-anne Nalder continued this positive trend when she also received the NSF fellowship.  Shai-anne is an alumna of and current student mentor with the Utah Native American Summer Research Internship. We were also joined this year by PhD student Jessica Pita Aquino, who transferred to our department from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and will be funded by her 2018 NSF GRFP fellowship.

            Biochemistry graduate students from UR backgrounds have had considerable recent success obtaining research training support from the NIH. In 2020, Elliott Paine was awarded a three-year NIH/NIGMS F31 individual predoctoral fellowship. From 2018-2020, five UR students were awarded two-year positions on NIH T32 training grants: Claudia Consalvo, Helen Donelick, Tanya Espino, Deirdre Mack, and Jaime Sepulveda. Claudia has made key contributions to building and improving the diversity page on our Biochemistry website, Helen has spearheaded a Biochemistry mental-wellness committee, and Deirdre is a current officer in our Utah SACNAS chapter. Over this same period, five students were supported by diversity supplements to existing NIH grants. Claudia Consalvo, Shai-anne Nalder, Bernard Scott, and Jesse Velasco received awards funded by NIH, while Jessica Pita Aquino received a University of Utah-funded supplement. Jesse is the current vice-president of our Utah SACNAS chapter.

            Beyond these research fellowships, we would also like to highlight additional diversity-oriented training awards received by Biochemistry students. Seyi Falekun and Onyeka Obidi have received training support from the Utah African American Doctoral Scholars Initiative. We are also grateful to the estate of Sherman R. and Deborah Ann Dickman for endowing a travel award that supports scientific meeting attendance by current students in the department, with prioritization of UR and international students. To date, seven Biochemistry students have received Dickman travel awards.

            As a department, we are proud of these funding successes by our current students. More importantly, we strongly value the tremendous contributions these diverse students make to our department and the broader community. Achieving equitable diversity in our trainees, fellows, staff, and faculty and fostering an inclusive and supportive environment are major priorities of Biochemistry. We look forward to strongly supporting the continued scientific and professional success of our students!