The awards, which recognize the recipients' past efforts at connecting scientific research and education and their proposals for continuing their work, will be presented at a ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences June 3.
The individual grants of $300,000, to be used over four years, will enable the recipients to improve how science, technology, engineering and mathematics research translates into undergraduate instruction of students, including those not majoring in these fields.
This year's awardees are:
- David P. Billington, Princeton University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering;
- Daniel J. Klionsky, University of Michigan's Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology;
- Mary Lee S. Ledbetter, College of the Holy Cross's Department of Biology;
- Chris Rogers, Tufts University's Department of Mechanical Engineering;
- Henry L. Shipman, University of Delaware's Department of Physics and Astronomy; and
- Lee Spector, Hampshire College's School of Cognitive Science.
Colwell established the award in 2001 as part of the foundation's effort to promote an interest among academics in both disciplinary scholarship and in undergraduate education in mathematics, science, technology and engineering regardless of student majors.
"These faculty are the ones who show undergraduate students that scientists are made, not born," said Dr. Judith Ramaley, NSF's Assistant Director for the Education and Human Resources Directorate. "They're literally pulling back the curtain of science with imaginative, informative and insightful practices and projects that make the opportunity of experiencing science accessible to all students."
NSF Program Officer: Herbert Levitan, (703) 292-4627, hlevitan@nsf.gov
Web resources:
www.holycross.edu
www.princeton.edu
www.hampshire.edu
www.umich.edu
www.tufts.edu
www.udel.edu