In October 2010, Prairie View A&M University became the first HBCU granted the Integrated Undergraduate Research Experiences in Biological and Mathematical Science grant, a $316,414 grant given to Prairie View by the National Science Foundation for the next five years.
Dr. Kaibin Fu, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, serves as principle investigator and is responsible for the grant’s allocation.
He said, “Many mathematics students do not like biology and many biology students do not like mathematics. The UBM grant program will serve as an interface between mathematics and biology students.”
According to Fu, undergraduate students will receive $500 per month for multidisciplinary research done supporting the connecting of the mathematical and biological sciences. Courses like calculus I for biology majors will be added to the curriculum to encourage the collaboration of the two departments.
Prairie View will be working in conjunction with Texas A&M University to create a new Bachelors of Science degree option mathematical biology.
They will use teleconferences to communicate. Fu says one of the goals of the alliance of the universities through the UBM program is to increase representation of women, Hispanics and African-Americans in mathematical and life sciences.
UBM hosts an annual conference, which gave junior biology major Ebonee Hayward the opportunity to visit Colorado State University. Hayward was one of two African-American students in the conference, and received honorable reviews for Prairie View.
She was also the only student representing an HBCU. Prairie View hopes that encouraging participation in the UBM program will result in more students attending to the conference.
In support of the UBM program a weekly “Quantitative Biology Seminar” takes place every Monday at 5:30 p.m. in W.R. Banks room 309. All interested students are encouraged to attend. Any mathematics or biology students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher who are interested in the UBM grant program should email an inquiry to Dr. Kaibin Fu at kafu@pvamu.edu.