A $1 million National Science Foundation S-STEM training grant will enable NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to create a new interdisciplinary master’s program for students from underrepresented groups.
The Interdisciplinary Biochemistry Graduate Program will provide tuition for 20 master’s students in the Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry over five years.
“The program will increase the diversity of the college’s graduate student population and create opportunities for low-income and minority students to contribute to solving challenges in agriculture and human health, including environmental changes due to global warming, increased population pressures, and the relationship between nutrition and health,” said Bob Rose, grant PI and associate professor of biochemistry. “We need to include students of diverse backgrounds to tackle today’s complex problems.”
The grant will promote interdisciplinary research and training in biochemistry applied to problems in agriculture and human health. Jobs in biological, agricultural and environmental sciences are on the rise, Rose said, and in North Carolina alone, more than 40 percent of new jobs are in knowledge-intensive industries, with many in STEM disciplines.