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APPENDIX D 47 STATEMENT BY ELIZABETH W. JONES, Ph.D. I will comment on four issues: the influence of early research exposure and experience in awakening interest in biomedical research, the effectiveness of such programs in recruiting women and minority students into a research path, the cost effectiveness of this training mode, and the inadequacy of the funds available for such training. At Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), nearly 90 percent of students graduating in Biological Sciences carry out independent research at some time in their education. Some do research for the entire four years, some only one; the average is probably two years. Career paths of our graduates split about equally into thirds: to graduate school, to medical school (about a third in M.D./Ph.D. programs), and to jobs. About a third of this last group goes to medical or graduate school later. Thus about half of our graduates enter careers in biomedical research. This is a large fraction. It probably reflects to some degree a pattern of self selection on the part of students, for we are not known as a premed school, have no premedical curriculum per se, and have stringent hard science requirements. In addition, these students often have received previous exposure to good science in the form of summer programs like the Pennsylvania Governorâs Schools for the Sciences held at CMU and Penn State for high school juniors, providing some basis for the self selection. Regardless of the element of self selection, we think that the undergraduate research experience is a very important element in the decision to embark on a research career, for it allows an informed decision to be made. I repeat the outcome: about 50 percent of our graduates engage in careers in biomedical research. Our departmental faculty of 18 has a long standing and serious commitment to undergraduate research. Typically about 60 students do research each term, about 55 during the summer, and the mean and median number of undergraduate students/lab is about 3. A recent search of the two page NSF/NIH bios of our faculty members revealed 25 papers with undergraduate authors and 22 undergraduate authors. Our summer research students include CMU students and 10 non-CMU students participating in an NSF- REU program. During the past four years of this NSF-REU program, 68 percent of the participants have been from liberal arts colleges or colleges with large minority enrollments, 62 percent have been women, and 24 percent have been minority students. Of the participants who have already received bachelorâs degrees, 60 percent have entered Ph.D. programs, 10 percent M.D./Ph.D. programs, 10 percent M.D. programs. Of the remaining 20 percent, nearly all intend to apply to graduate or medical school in the near future. Although it is impossible to disentangle the element of self selection from these data, the fact remains that a very large fraction of students who participate in undergraduate research programs end up in biomedical research careers. They are able to make the commitment knowing in advance that they enjoy doing research and are good at it. What is the cost of providing this opportunity for an enlightened decision? The NSF-REU grant that supports our program provides $5,000/student. This provides a $2,500 summer stipend, a housing and travel allowance, some funds for instruction and supplies, and limited overhead. By contrast, a naive student without research experience who enters graduate school will cost $20-30,000/year. Some fraction of those will withdraw, a very costly route to a decision. And itâs impossible to estimate the fraction of naive students who never realize that they would and could have enjoyed research careers. How do we at Carnegie Mellon support the research activities of undergraduates? Using last summer as an example, 10 students were supported by an NSF-REU and 13 by a grant from the Howard Hughes Foundation. The remaining 31 were supported on research grants or by work study funds from the state of Pennsylvania. During the fall term of 1992, 22 students received course credit for research. The remaining 37 students were supported by funds from research grants, the Hughes grant, or work study funds from the Pennsylvania or U.S. government. Are the funds available adequate to this purpose? Among Carnegie Mellon biology students, we have more applicants than we can afford to pay (or have room for). On a national level I believe the problem to be much more acute. For our NSF-REU program, for the years 1991-1993, we had 154, 208, and 297 applicants respectively for 10 places. Obviously many students apply to more than one program. However, we have found that we must accept students very carefully, for about 75 percent of the students we accept will matriculate. By contrast, rates of matriculation
