The Next President of Meharry Medical College
James E.K. Hildreth is dean of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Davis. From 2005 to 2011, Dr. Hildreth was director of the Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research at Meharry.
The Large Racial Gap in Graduate School Enrollments in STEM Fields
In 2012, Blacks were a very small percentage of the overall graduate student population in many STEM disciplines. For example, there were only eight Black students nationwide enrolled in graduate programs in astronomy, about 0.6 percent of total enrollments in the field.
Auburn University Scholars Promote Mathematics Research in Southern Africa
Professor Overtoun Jenda and colleagues at Auburn University have developed the Masamu Program to promote research collaboration between mathematicians in southern Africa and the United States.
Blacks Make Up 4 Percent of Employed Scientists With Doctorates
According to a report from the National Science Foundation, Blacks with doctoral degrees made up 3.1 percent of the employed computer sciences, 1.9 of the physical scientists, and 1.7 percent of the engineers.
Grambling State University Nursing Program Obtains a Reprieve
State regulations in Louisiana require that an accredited nursing program maintain a licensure examination passage rate of 80 percent or above for first time test takers. In 2013 the passage rate at Grambling was 64 percent.
New Study Documents Degree Completion of Minority Doctoral Students in STEM Fields
One important finding in the Council of Graduate Schools report was that minority doctoral students had the most difficulty when they entered the dissertation phase of their doctoral programs.
Diversity in STEM Fields Is a Social Justice Issue, Study Finds
Amassing critical numbers of underrepresented students is important, but achieving enrollment targets does little to improve the problems in the campus culture that affect students and contribute to their failure to complete degree programs.
Two Black Scholars Elected Members of the National Academy of Sciences
The two African Americans elected members of the National Academy of Sciences are Scott V. Edwards, a professor of biology at Harvard University, and Jennifer A. Richeson, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University.
Students at Harris-Stowe State University Can Take a Computer Science Course for Free
Students at Harris-Stowe State University, the historically Black educational institution in St. Louis, will be able to take a computer science course for free at nearby Washington University.
New Study Finds No Progress in Increasing Black Faculty in Chemistry
African Americans make up just 1 percent of the chemistry professors at the 50 U.S. colleges that have the largest budgets for chemical research. Thirty of these 50 schools have no Black chemistry faculty.
Florida A&M University Confers Ph.D.s in Physics to Two Black Women
According to the National Science Foundation, 1,902 people earned Ph.D.s in physics at American universities in 2013. Only 18.8 percent were women and only 19 were Black. Now two Black women have earned Ph.D.s in physics at the same university in the same year.
North Carolina Central University to Offer New Dual-Degree Program
Under the plan, students will spend their first-three undergraduate years at North Carolina Central taking a physics-based curriculum and then transfer to North Carolina State to take courses in electrical engineering.
Coppin State and the University of Baltimore Form Partnership for STEM Education
The partnership calls for faculty research collaboration in complementary STEM areas through shared faculty expertise and interest, shared lab facilities and equipment, and inter-institutional software licensing.
Delaware State University Partners With SAP SE Corporation
The new Center for Excellence at Delaware State will train the university's students in state-of-the-art business software applications from the world's second largest independent software company.
Math Collaborative for Black Males Moves to California State University, Long Beach
The goal of the program, initially established at the Claremont Colleges, was to encourage Black male students, who many would not expect to go to college, to excel at mathematics and other subjects so that they would be prepared for college-level work.
The University of Chicago Looks to Aid Mathematics Education in Africa
The University of Chicago has signed a new partnership agreement with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS). Under the agreement the University of Chicago will provide faculty members and graduate students to AIMS centers across Africa to assist in the training of AIMS graduate students.
Virginia Tech’s Summer Program Seeks to Increase Diversity at Its Medical School
Hampton University students selected for the internship program receive guaranteed admission to the medical school so long as they graduate from Hampton with honors and achieve a threshold score on the Medical College Admission Test.
Increasing the Number of African American Cancer Researchers
The Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research aims to encourage Black and other minority graduate students to pursue doctoral degrees and careers in research relating to cancer.
Florida State Scholar Named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
A native of London, Steve Acquah is an associate research professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Dr. Acquah, who is also a fellow of the Royal Microbiology Society, focuses his research on carbon nanotube-based sensors and devices.
Why Black Men Are Making No Progress in Medical Education
In 1978, 1,410 Black males applied to U.S. medical schools. In 2014, the figure was 1,337. In 2014, women were 62.2 percent of all African Americans who applied to medical school. In every other major racial or ethnic group, men were a majority of all applicants.
Engineering Deans Pledge to Increase Diversity in Students and Faculty
Engineering deans from more than 100 universities in North America who are members of the American Society for Engineering Education signed a letter committing their schools to building more diverse and inclusive programs.
North Carolina Central’s Early Medical School Selection Program
Under the program, students from NCCU spend summers taking classes at the Boston University medical school. The NCCU students who are selected for the program spend their entire senior year as undergraduates in Boston.
African American Scholar From Harvard University to Lead New Technology Journal
Latanya Sweeney was appointed editor-in-chief of Technology Science, a new journal published by the Data Privacy Lab at Harvard University. During 2014, she served as the chief technology officer for the Federal Trade Commission.
New Scholarship Opportunity for HBCU Students in STEM Fields
The new Apple Scholars program, operated in conjunction with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, will offer a one-year scholarship of up to $25,000 for 30 students at HBCUs and other predominantly Black colleges and universities.
Georgia Tech and Intel Aim to Increase Minorities Pursuing STEM Degrees
The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta has announced a new partnership with Intel Inc. in an effort to increase the number of students from underrepresented minority groups who pursue degrees in engineering and computer science.
Danielle Laraque-Arena Named President of SUNY’s Upstate Medical University
A native of Haiti, Dr. Laraque-Arena has been serving as chair of the department of pediatrics at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, and as a professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
Arizona State’s Kimberly Scott to Lead the National Academic STEM Collaborative
Dr. Scott is an associate professor in the department of women and gender studies at Arizona State University. She is also the founding executive director of the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology at Arizona State.
The Extreme Science Scholars at Morgan State University
The Army Research Laboratory has expanded its effort to increase the number of minority students in STEM fields by creating the Extreme Science Scholar program at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
A Check-Up on the Racial Gap in Medical School Applications and Enrollments
In 2015, the number of Black applicants to U.S. medical schools was up a whopping 16.8 percent from 2014. Blacks were 7.6 percent of all medical school matriculants in 2015. This was up from 6.9 percent in 2014.
Hampton University Forms Partnership for Science Research With Brandeis University
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.
National Society of Black Engineers Seeks to Boost Black Graduates in the Field
The National Society of Black Engineers has announced a new initiative with the goal to increase the number of African Americans who receive bachelor's degrees in engineering to 10,000 annually by 2025. The most recent annual figure is 3,620.
University Scientists Develop Portable Device for Sickle Cell Diagnosis
Scientists at the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new method of detecting sickle cell disease that can be used in remote areas that do not have advanced medical technology.
The Widening Racial Gap in Bachelor’s Degree Attainments in Some STEM Fields
During the 10-year period, the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in physics in the United States increased by 58 percent. But the number of bachelor's degrees in physics awarded to African American rose only slightly.
The New Dean of the College of Engineering at Howard University
Dr. Achille Messac, educated at MIT, has been serving as dean of engineering and professor of aerospace engineering at Mississippi State University. Previously, he served on the faculties at Syracuse University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Jackson State University Wins Approval to Offer Two New Degree Programs in STEM Fields
Jackson State University will now offer a bachelor of science degree program in biotechnology and a master's degree in computational/data-enabled science and engineering.
New Biochemistry Major Launched at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a historically Black education institution that enrolls about 2,500 students, has announced that it will offer a new bachelor's degree program in biochemistry beginning in the fall of 2016.
