August 9, 2016

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has selected Antoinette Foster, a Ph.D. student in the Vollum Institute/OHSU Neuroscience Graduate Program, as one of 34 exceptional students to receive a 2016 Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study, a program aimed at increasing diversity in the scientific workforce. Read full media release.

The fellowships provide full support to promising doctoral students from groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. Each fellow will receive an annual award totaling $46,000, which includes a stipend, a training allowance and an institutional allowance, for up to three years.

Foster is mentored by Ben Emery, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine.

The fellowships were established in 2004 in honor of the late James H. Gilliam Jr., a charter Trustee of HHMI who spent his life fostering excellence and diversity in education and science. Since then, HHMI has provided more than $16 million to fund the Gilliam program. The program's goal is to ensure that a diverse and highly trained workforce is available to assume leadership roles in science, including college and university faculty who have the responsibility to develop the next generation of scientists.