New Grant Programs Relating to Women in Higher Education

The National Cancer Institute has awarded a five-year, $19.3 million grant to three scientists for a study to determine why young African-American women are more likely than women of European ancestry to be diagnosed with aggressive types of breast cancer. The study will be under the direction of Robert Millikan, the Barbara Sorenson Hulka Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, Julie R. Palmer, a professor of epidemiology at the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University, and Christine Ambrosone, professor of oncology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.

Notre Dame University of Maryland received a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for scholarships in STEM fields for students in its undergraduate Women’s College. Each year, up to 10 current or prospective students will receive $10,000 scholarships through the university’s Pathways to Excellence program.

Rebecca Whelan, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Oberlin College in Ohio, has received a three-year, $345,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a non-invasive testing procedure for early detection of ovarian cancer. During the first year of the grant program, Dr. Whelan will conduct research at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Dr. Whelan is a graduate of Lawrence University and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.