The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has just announced an award of $25,000 in conference funding to support the Society of Toxicology (SOT) Undergraduate Diversity Program at the 2015 SOT Annual Meeting in San Diego. This grant provides travel support for undergraduate students from groups that are under-represented in the sciences as well as for faculty advisors. Pictured at the right is a roundtable discussion held during the 2014 SOT Annual Meeting.
Jose E. Manautou is the grant Principal Investigator. He has successfully steered multiple applications for funding over the last decade, following in the footsteps of Myrtle A. Davis and Marion F. Ehrich since the beginning of the Undergraduate Diversity Program in 1989. Pictured below is Antonio T. Baines, 1993 program alumnus, North Carolina Central University, providing an introduction to toxicology to 2014 participants.
SOT has demonstrated a strong commitment to the program through member volunteers and financial support; Pfizer also has been an important supporter since 2000. I chair the Committee on Diversity Initiatives that organizes the Undergraduate Diversity Program and pursues other initiatives to encourage diversity in the pipeline to toxicology careers. I myself first attended SOT as a participant in this program.
Through the Undergraduate Diversity Program, SOT provides the opportunity for about 25 sophomores and juniors who may not have had much experience in toxicology to attend the Annual Meeting. These students are immersed in a three-day program with special introductory toxicology lectures, sessions with academic program leaders, and opportunities to learn about career options in toxicology from those with advanced degrees, all in the rich mix of the largest toxicology meeting in the world.
Applications are currently being accepted from students and non-SOT member advisors until the October 9 deadline. For more information, pleases visit the SOT website.