The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded three pairs of Johns Hopkins PhD students and their mentors a 2020 Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study, which not only recognizes students who have the potential to be leaders in their fields but also is designed to advance diversity and inclusion in the sciences.
Franklyn Hall, a rising fourth-year doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering and in the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, and his adviser, INBT Director Sharon Gerecht, were among 45 recipients of the award, which provides each student-mentor pair $50,000 annually for three years. The award will allow Gerecht to create professional development activities and training for students from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the sciences and in higher education and for their faculty mentors.
“We are grateful not only for the career-enhancing opportunities that the fellowship offers Franklyn but also for helping us advance our long-standing goal to increase the diversity of our trainees, who are the next generation of science and engineering leaders,” said Gerecht, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.