Chemistry Bridges to Doctoral Grant to Help Minorities Through Masters

KINGSVILLE (September 3, 2003) — Dr. Apu Bhattacharya, assistant chemistry professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, is excited about chemistry and he is trying to recruit students who share that excitement into his new Bridges to the Doctorate program.

The Bridges program is for minority students who wish to pursue a doctorate in chemistry or a related field, but don’t have the financial means to get through a master’s program.

Thanks to a $600,000, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, the chemistry department at A&M-Kingsville will be able to pay master’s students while they are doing their graduate work in Kingsville.

Once they complete their master’s degrees, partnerships with Texas A&M University and the University of Texas will make for an easy transition into a doctoral program.

“Most of the master’s students we have drop out because they don’t have the money. This Bridges to the Doctorate program is the first of its kind at A&M-Kingsville,” Bhattacharya said. “This program will be instrumental in expanding the career opportunities for underrepresented minority students in biomedically relevant chemistry or biochemistry fields by facilitating the transition from A&M-Kingsville to the doctoral programs at two outstanding Texas universities.”

“We have one of the best chemistry departments in the country, offering bachelor’s and master’s level degrees, but we lose a lot of our students to big schools because they can pay them,” he said. “The Bridges program will allow us to support up to 12 students per year paying them $8,000 as a stipend. They can complete their master’s and then make an easier transition to a doctoral program.”

“We want our students to be successful. Their success is our success. There are a lot of good students in South Texas. We want to keep them here,” he said.

Bhattacharya is being assisted in the Bridges program by Dr. Daniel Romo, associate professor at Texas A&M University, and Dr. Brian L. Pagenkopf, assistant professor at the University of Texas.

“It is our hope the program will help students from Kingsville become highly successful scientists by giving them guidance on how to navigate the complexities of graduate school,” Pagenkopf said.

“The Bridges program will enable and encourage both undergraduate and graduate students from A&M-Kingsville to pursue careers in the chemical and biochemical fields by providing much needed research funds to the university for stipends and research supplies,” Romo said.

He said the program will also allow A&M-Kingsville students to interact with faculty and students at Texas A&M through programs such as the Industry University Chemistry Cooperative and the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate Program.

“This program will help Texas A&M to increase diversity by providing a means and further avenues for underrepresented undergraduate students to have appropriate training,” Romo said.

While at A&M-Kingsville, graduate and even undergraduate students have the opportunity to do hands on research in chemistry and complete internships with companies like Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson, Bhattacharya said.

“I have already been involved with the Ronald E. McNair Scholarship program at A&M-Kingsville that provides research opportunities to undergraduate students, and the Upward Bound Math and Science Program aimed toward mentoring underrepresented low-income minority students,” he said.

Prior to teaching at A&M-Kingsville, Bhattacharya worked for 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry. He holds 24 patents including Proscar and Propecia.

Students interested in the Bridges to the Doctorate program may contact Bhattacharya at 361-593-2664.