FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Doug Stone
August 20, 2003 Barbara K. Laskin
(651) 696-6203

BECKMAN FOUNDATION SELECTS MACALESTER AS A 2003 INSTITUTIONAL AWARD RECIPIENT - Macalester Student Awarded Beckman Scholars Program Scholarship

St. Paul, MN - Macalester College was one of 13 institutions chosen as a 2003 Institutional Award Recipient for the Beckman Scholars Program, and Nicholas DeWayne Ball, a junior at Macalester College from Chattanooga, Tenn., has been awarded a Beckman Scholars Program scholarship, which recognizes outstanding undergraduate students in chemistry and biological sciences research. Ball's research project was titled: "Scope and Limitations of a Modified Sonogashira Cross-Coupling Protocol: Development of Synthetic Orthogonality." The scholarship amount, awarded over a three-year period, is $17,600 for two summers and one academic year or a 15-month research grant.
The other 2003 Institutional Award Recipients for the Beckman Scholars Program were: California State University, Long Beach; Carnegie Mellon University; The College of William and Mary; Dickinson College; Illinois State University; Miami University; New York University; University of Arizona; University of California, San Diego; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; University of South Carolina and Western Washington University.

Ball, the first Macalester student to receive this grant, credits his high school chemistry teacher for introducing him to the power and knowledge of chemistry. "It's a very powerful tool," said Ball. Ball is a chemistry major with a minor in biology and French.

The Beckman Foundation reviews program information from hundreds of institutions across the country each year. This year, 209 institutions from 42 states (six in Minnesota) and the District of Columbia were invited to apply. Fifty applications were received and out of those, 13 colleges and universities were picked and 68 undergraduate students from those 13 colleges and universities were selected as Beckman Scholars. To date, 282 students at 68 universities have received the awards.
The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, an independent, non-profit Foundation originally established in 1977, makes grants to non-profit research institutions to promote research in chemistry and the life sciences, and foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials.

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