USA Biology Student Wins ALEPSCoR GRSP Scholarship
Posted on May 16, 2016 by Arts and Sciences
A USA Biology student in the Borchert Laboratory in the College of Arts and Sciences was recently awarded the ALEPSCoR GRSP fellowship - Valeria King. These fellowships are extremely competitive with only 20 awarded this year to graduate students across the state of Alabama.
Valeria King was awarded her fellowship based on her studies of molecular contributors to malignancy in different cancers. Impressively, Valeria has already coauthored two original research articles during her first year as a Biology graduate student at USA and looks to author several more articles while completing her fellowship. Valeria will finish her M.S. degree in Biology in 2017 and plans to enroll in a Ph.D. program in Genetics.
The Alabama Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ALEPSCoR) is dedicated to the advancement of economic development via scientific and engineering research through a collaborative effort among the State’s research universities. The focus of activities is designed to attract and retain distinguished scientists and researchers for Alabama; to develop new cutting-edge technologies and high-tech industry; and to stimulate state competitiveness in medicine, biotechnology, engineering, and other applied sciences.
The goal of the ALEPSCoR GRSP is to invest in Alabama universities to expand research output and attract eminent senior faculty and quality graduate students. The program’s objective is to provide a highly trained workforce to fuel the growth of high technology companies in Alabama. Graduate students who represent the next generation of researchers and innovators are critical to the advancement of Alabama’s high-tech human resource capacity. In 2012, the Alabama Legislature continued the appropriation to ALEPSCoR through the Alabama Commission on Higher Education for the purpose of funding the GRSP. Since its inception in 2006, the program has funded more than 187 exceptional graduate students. Students are selected competitively by a team consisting of one campus coordinator from each of the Ph.D. granting institutions in the ALEPSCoR Program.