The award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation provides scholarship funds to each student to conduct research under the direction of a UNL faculty mentor.

The inaugural mentors are

• Paul Blum, Bessey Professor of Biological Sciences, for Valerie Eckrich
• Concetta DiRusso, George Holmes University Professor of Biochemistry, for Jessica Checkal
• Luwen Zhang, Professor of Biological Sciences, for Qianli Wang
• Melanie Simpson, Susan J. Rosowski Professor of Biochemistry, for Ashley Thelen

In March 2013, UNL was one of 10 institutions in the United States selected for the Beckman Scholars program by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. The award, worth $115,800, will allow the university to provide scholarships over three years.

Each year, a group of two to three UNL students will be selected for the program. The university is providing matching funds to help support the Beckman Scholars.

Three UNL departments participte in the Beckman Scholars Program: the Department of Biochemistry, the Department of Chemistry, and the School of Biological Sciences. The students will conduct their research full-time during the summers and part-time as coursework allows during the academic year. The goal for each student after finishing the program is to have his or her work published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The scholars also travel each summer to a three-day Beckman Scholars Symposium in Irvine, California, where they meet Beckman Scholars from all over the country and share their research results.

The UNL program is administered by Gregory Snow, Paul Black, John Osterman, Liangcheng Du, Laura Damuth and Madhavan Soudararajan.

Other institutions selected for the Beckman Scholars program in 2013 are St. Olaf College, Tufts University, the University of Florida, the University of Michigan, the University of Richmond, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia, Wellesley College and Rice University.