Hampton University in Virginia has formed a partnership with Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, to increase the number of African American students conducting scientific research. The Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) will include a 10-week summer program for Hampton undergraduate students. These students will participate in research projects with scientists at Brandeis. All expenses for the Hampton students will be paid by funds from a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
Raymond Samuel, assistant dean of the School of Engineering and Technology at Hampton University and co-director of the PREM program, said that “there are many talented young people who may never know they have an aptitude for research science. If they’re never exposed to it, they don’t know they are missing out on it.”
Another component of the PREM program will be two-year appointments for three assistant research professors. The scholars will spend their first year conducting research at Brandeis and their second year they will continue their research at Hampton. The goal of the program is to train these researchers for tenure-track posts at either university.
