Caltech Receives Amgen Scholars Program Grant

Caltech has been named as a host institution for the next phase of the Amgen Scholars Program. Funding from the Amgen Foundation will allow Caltech to provide hands-on laboratory experience to 20 undergraduate students each summer for the next four years.

Caltech has been a site for the Amgen Scholars Program since 2007. The program to date has funded 204 students, approximately one-half Caltech and one-half non-Caltech students. The program's focus is on research in biology, chemistry, and biotech related fields. Caltech scholars have conducted research in the laboratories of faculty including Frances H. Arnold (Dick and Barbara Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry), David Baltimore (Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology), John D. Roberts (Institute Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus), Paul W. Sternberg (Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology and investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute), and David A. Tirrell (Ross McCollum–William H. Corcoran Professor and professor of chemistry and chemical engineering).

Alumni of the program have gone on to win other national and international honors, including the Rhodes, Goldwater, Churchill, and Fulbright scholarships, the Hertz Fellowship, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Ninety-seven percent of the Caltech Amgen Scholars alumni who have completed their undergraduate degree are currently pursuing an advanced science degree or are in a scientific career field.

First launched in the United States in 2007, the Amgen Scholars Program " aims to inspire the next generation of innovators by providing undergraduates with hands-on summer research opportunities at many of the world's premier educational institutions" and provides "greater access and opportunity for young scientists to engage in cutting-edge research across a wide range of scientific fields and deepen their understanding of medical biotechnology," according to a news release from the Amgen Foundation. Nationally, the program has provided scholarships to more than 2,500 undergraduate students.

On November 12, 2014, the foundation announced a new phase of the program, extending through 2018, and the addition of six institutions. There are now 17 participating institutions, at sites in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

"This next phase of the Caltech Amgen Scholars program has some new features," notes Candace Rypisi, director of student-faculty programs. "For the next four years, we will focus on recruiting non-Caltech students, with a strong emphasis on students who do not have research opportunities at their home schools and on students traditionally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This will support Caltech's commitment to training a diverse set of STEM leaders."