The purpose of the Beckman Scholars Program is to help stimulate, encourage and support research activities by exceptionally talented, full-timed undergraduate students who are pursuing their studies at accredited four-year colleges and universities located in the United States of America. These research activities shall be centered in either chemistry, biochemistry, the biological and medical sciences or some combination of these subjects. Candidates for Beckman Scholars must be full-time students throughout the duration of the award.

The research activities performed by Beckman Scholars shall be conducted under the guidance of a full-time faculty member at the college or university receiving an award. The research work performed by the Scholar shall be deemed to be publishable by the student's faculty mentor. Such activities shall be performed part-time (ten hours per week) during one academic year and full-time over two summers (ten weeks each summer) immediately before and after the academic year research experience.

Students will be named as Beckman Scholars in the spring of their sophomore or junior years at their university or college. Once selected to be a Beckman Scholar, a student will retain the funding as long as he/she continues to excel academically, is in good academic standing, and his/her research work shows satisfactory progress. Beckman Scholar summer funds may extend through the summer following graduation. Beckman Scholar funds provided to any one student may not exceed two summers and one academic year.

During the summer, Beckman Scholars from throughout the country who have completed their academic year and summer terms of undergraduate research activities will gather for an Annual Research Symposium at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, California. A faculty mentor representative of the graduating class of Beckman Scholars is expected to attend the symposium. The Beckman Scholars Annual Symposium will feature:

• Scientific and poster presentations by Beckman Scholars.
  
• Keynote presentations by internationally prominent scientific figures.
  
A series of informal concurrent seminars on topics of special interest by leading scientists from academia, industry and national government laboratories.

• Social activities.

The annual symposium will be a three-evening, two-day event. Staff at the Beckman Foundation will coordinate all arrangements and reservations for the symposium. All symposium-related travel, lodging, and other expenses for Beckman Scholars and faculty mentors will be paid for by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

Beckman Scholar awards are institutional, university or college awards. Each year, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation will select a number of research, doctoral, masters and baccalaureate universities and colleges to be invited to submit applications for the Beckman Scholars Program. Each institution may submit one application for consideration for an award. The application must include endorsements from the chief academic officer and the dean(s) of the College(s), School(s) or Division(s) including the participating academic unit

The applying institution will designate one contact person for communications concerning its application. Institutional award recipients will be responsible for administering the program as well as submitting financial reports, reports of academic standing and research progress of the Beckman Scholars' research activities.

The application may be prepared either individually or jointly by the respective chairs of the academic units of chemistry, biochemistry, the biological and medical sciences or their designated representative(s).

The Foundation has the assistance and counsel of a group of distinguished teacher/scholars who serve on the Beckman Scholars Advisory Panel. The panel members review and evaluate the applications for the program. The panel considers the following factors in its evaluations of the final applications.

• Institution's historical and current commitment to quality undergraduate research programs in chemistry, biochemistry and the biological and medical sciences.
  
• Institution's recent record of admission to quality graduate and medical schools for its chemistry, biochemistry, biological and medical science undergraduate students, along with information about graduate pre-doctoral fellowship awards.
  
• Baccalaureate institution as a source of chemistry, biochemistry, biological science and medical science Ph.D.'s and M.D.'s.



• Educational credentials and scholarly accomplishments of proposed faculty mentor group as evidenced by post-2002 publications in refereed research journals, receipt and magnitude of post-2002 nationally competitive funding to support research activities, and career teaching/research excellence awards and honors.



• Undergraduate research mentor experience of participating faculty as indicated by:

• Adequacy of proposed student evaluation and selection criteria to affirm that the institution's most talented students are considered for Beckman Scholar awards - students who possess the intellect, written and oral communication skills, as well as personal character, to become potential outstanding leaders in their ultimate science-related careers and professions.
• Quality, distinctiveness and clarity of academic unit(s)' program plan for nurturing Beckman Scholars as they progressively develop their research knowledge, skills and abilities, emphasizing the student as a focal point of research activities vs. supporting role duties (i.e., collaborator vs. support technician);
• Academic unit(s)' level(s) of external support (federal agencies, private foundations and industry) for faculty research activities as well as the institution's internal operational and financial support for research activities which include Beckman Scholar participation;
• Institution's proposed program for Beckman Scholars' personal development, including mentoring, advisement, career planning assistance and distinctive educational enrichment programs.

Each Advisory Panel member has the flexibility to weigh the above factors differently in terms of his/her best judgment of which are most important to achieving the goals of the Beckman Scholars Program. However, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation has asked the Panel to place special emphasis on the selection process, the degree of responsibility the student personally will have for his/her project(s), the quality of the academic unit(s)' research programs, the degree of interaction between the student and the research mentor and the distinctiveness of institutional educational enrichment programs focused on Beckman Scholars.

The Foundation also is of the opinion that whatever an institution's selection process includes, that activity is enhanced considerably by faculty evaluations of Beckman Scholar candidate's written and oral communication skills. Therefore, the Foundation asks for the inclusion of student interviews, conducted by faculty, as an important element of the selection process presented in the application.

Application material must be submitted to the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation prior to Monday, October 1, 2007. Incomplete applications or applications received after Monday, October 1, 2007, will not be considered.

The original plus fourteen (14) copies (three-hole punched, NO double-sided pages, NO staples or clips and each application separated by one sheet of colored paper) of the entire application material MUST BE submitted in the following order:

Application Cover Page

Institutional Data Sheet

Faculty Mentor Summary Data Sheet

Proposal (not to exceed six typewritten pages)

Appendix (three-page curriculum vitae for no more than ten faculty mentors)

INSTITUTIONAL CATEGORIES AND NUMBER OF AWARDS

A university/college will be eligible for one award that must be used over a three-year period. Each award will fund up to six Beckman Scholars (including student scholarships, travel funds and research supplies) extending over two summers and one academic year. Carnegie Classification Research I universities will be eligible to receive up to six (no more than three scholarships to be awarded in any one year) Beckman Scholar awards. Research II, Doctoral I, and Masters I universities will be eligible to receive up to five awards (no more than three scholarships to be awarded in any one year). Baccalaureate I universities and colleges will be eligible to receive up to four awards (no more than two scholarships to be awarded in any one year). Award recipients may be invited to apply for a new award beginning the year immediately following completion of an award cycle.

The amount of funding per student is $19,300, assuming he/she works two full-time summers and one part-time academic year.

The following is a breakdown of each Beckman Scholar award:

Summer Funding

Academic Year Funding

Scientific meeting travel funds and research supplies to support research activities:

Summer Travel and Supplies Funding

- $850 per summer for each student

Academic Year Travel and Supplies Funding

- $1,600 per academic year for each student