CEBC Education Director Ana Chicas-Mosier is co-investigator on $3 million grant supporting undergraduate STEM research
The University of Kansas, in collaboration with five other regional higher education institutions, has been awarded a five-year, $3.5 million National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation grant. The award will establish the Aligning STEM Trainees for Enterprising Research (ASTER) program and fund undergraduate research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Barbara A. Bichelmeyer, KU provost and executive vice chancellor and professor of educational leadership & policy studies is the principal investigator for ASTER. “The ASTER program will enable KU to increase access and participation among promising students through engaging research experiences with faculty who are there to support and guide them,” said Bichelmeyer.
Ana Chicas-Mosier — education, outreach & diversity director for KU’s Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis — is co-investigator and will serve as the ASTER program director. An alumna of the Oklahoma LSAMP, Chicas-Mosier said, “This program is and was deeply impactful on my educational and personal success. As an undergraduate scholar, I found an excitement for research and a community of support that I still lean on today.”
NSF’s LSAMP program aims to increase STEM degrees earned by underrepresented populations. The program has supported more than 650,000 undergraduate students in STEM since 1990. ASTER students will work on a variety of research projects spanning chemistry, neuroscience, genetics, combinatorics, fluid mechanics, particle physics, construction materials and more.