Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Terrence Gee and his family donated $1 million to help launch the Dr. Anthony B. Pinn Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Center for African and African American Studies at Rice University in Houston. Gee is an alumnus and a trustee of the university. He is the chief information officer at Coca-Cola Beverages Florida. The fellowship honors Anthony B. Pinn, an Agnes Cullen Arnold professor of humanities and the founding director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning. It is intended to increase the Center for African and African American Studies’ influence by attracting more scholars with a research focus on African and African-American Studies.
Historically Black Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, received a $500,000 grant from the Google Cybersecurity Clinics Fund. Stillman College will use the grant money to offer free cybersecurity services to organizations and small businesses, hire students for internships in the clinic, provide scholarships, and mentor other colleges as they launch cyber clinics.
Prairie View A&M University, the historically Black educational institution in Texas, has been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy. The grant program has two goals: to develop and test high-tech materials for use in harsh environments, such as space, and to develop and encourage student interest in STEM. The project, NNSA Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program Gulf Coast Consortium: Materials-At-The-Extreme, is a collaboration between Prairie View A&M University, Florida A&M University, Florida State University, the Sandia National Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Fayetteville State University and North Carolina A&T State University are sharing a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. This project aims to enhance the amount of energy-related materials science research at the two historically black universities through collaboration with the Savannah River National Laboratory and increase the exposure of these institutions to the scientific community to help establish their presence in the energy-technology area. Students will be trained in the fundamentals of materials synthesis, material processing, photophysics, electrochemistry, magnetism, simulations, and theoretical calculations.
