Dr. Winston Anderson of Howard University's department of biology is one of the nation’s top 20 scientists to receive million-dollar awards from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Each HHMI professor, selected from more than 100 research universities with outstanding track records in sending graduates to medical or graduate school, will receive $1 million to bring the creativity they have shown in the lab to the undergraduate classroom.

The Institute does not tell the HHMI professors what to do or how to approach science education. Rather, HHMI provides them with the resources to turn their own considerable creativity loose in their undergraduate classrooms.

Professor Anderson’s plans include: giving his predominately Black undergraduate students “a competitive edge” for entering biomedical science careers, and having an intensive mentoring and summer exchange program that will take students to African countries such as Ghana, Ethiopia, Mali, or Nigeria to study tropical diseases and ethno pharmacology—the use of indigenous plants for medicinal purposes.

Since 2002, HHNI has invited leading research universities to nominate up to two faculty members to compete for the HHMI professorships. A panel of distinguished research scientists and educators, including HHMI professors selected in past competitions, review applications and evaluate the potential impact of the proposals on undergraduate science education, as well as the quality of the applicants’ research, educational accomplishments, and the potential for the proposed programs to serve as models elsewhere.

The Institute awarded $20 million to the first group of HHMI professors in 2002 to bring the excitement of scientific discovery to the undergraduate classroom.