WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected the United Negro College Fund Special
Programs Corp. of Falls Church, Va., to administer a $1 million
career development and educational program designed to address the
critical shortage of U.S. minority students in science and
engineering fields.
The NASA Astrobiology Institute's (NAI) Minority Institution Research
Support (MIRS) program in Moffett Field, Calif., is providing the
funding for the four-year effort. The program will provide
opportunities for up to four faculty members and eight students from
minority-serving institutions to partner with astrobiology
investigators. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution,
distribution and the future of life on Earth and the potential for
life elsewhere.
"Providing new education opportunities for minority students will both
enrich lives and answer a critical need for proficiency in science
and engineering," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "But just
as importantly, the program is an investment to cultivate imaginative
thinking about the field of astrobiology."
The United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corp. will use its
extensive database of 14,000 registrants to develop an online
community to provide webinars, virtual training and videoconferences,
and provide outreach and recruitment for program participants. The
program's objective is to engage more teachers from under-represented
schools in astrobiology research and increase the number of students
pursuing careers in astrobiology.
"Our nation's underserved populations are a tremendous resource on
which we must draw, not just for science, but for everything we do,"
said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute. "We are
extremely pleased that the NAI MIRS program will continue
contributing under the leadership of such a strong and experienced
partner."
Founded in 1998, NAI is a partnership between NASA, 14 U.S. teams of
universities and other organizations, and six international
consortia. NAI's goals are to promote, conduct, and lead
interdisciplinary astrobiology research, train a new generation of
astrobiology researchers, and share the excitement of the field.
NAI is part of NASA's Astrobiology Program at the agency's
headquarters in Washington. The institute initiated the MIRS program
in 2002 as part of its mission to help train a new generation of
researchers in astrobiology and increase diversity within the
astrobiology community.