The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation is now accepting applications for its 2009 Sir Alexander Fleming Scholar Program. The application deadline is Feb. 1.
High school seniors, as well as college freshmen, sophomores and juniors, are eligible to apply for the scholarships. Students selected as Fleming Scholars will work side-by-side in a laboratory with a senior-level OMRF scientist for eight weeks.
Applicants must be residents of Oklahoma at the time of high school graduation. The scholarships include housing during the program, if needed, and a $3,000 stipend.
The program is named in honor of Sir Alexander Fleming, the Nobel-prize winning scientist who dedicated OMRF. Since the program’s inception in 1956, more than 450 Oklahoma students have been named Fleming Scholars.
“For more than a half-century, gifted students from all over Oklahoma have come to OMRF to sharpen their laboratory and critical-thinking skills,” said OMRF President Stephen Prescott, M.D. “This experience prepares them for real life and boosts their confidence in many ways. They leave OMRF with a much better understanding of the importance of basic research and learn about possible career options in the sciences.”
OMRF is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and developing more effective treatments for human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and heart disease.
Three Fleming alumni currently serve on the foundation’s scientific staff: Rodger McEver, M.D., Judith James, M.D., Ph.D., and Andrea Sestak, M.D., Ph.D.
For more information and application forms, go to www.omrf.org/fleming.
