Howard Professor named among 20 best

Dr. Winston Anderson, Department of Biology, Howard University, has been named among the 20 best scientists in academia by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Anderson will receive a $1 million research grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

In an effort to promote research in the classroom, HHMI seeks to provide its recipients with the necessary resources to help transform their creativity and innovative ideas into action.

“Professor Anderson is one of our outstanding scientists, and I am truly delighted that he has been selected for this high honor,” said Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert.

The scientists whom we have selected are true pioneers—not only in their research, but in their creative approaches and dedication to teaching,” said Thomas R. Cech, HHMI president. “We are hopeful that their educational experiments will energize undergraduate science education throughout the nation.”

“This award represents an important step in continuing a quality undergraduate research program at Howard,” said Anderson. “It will allow us to identify talented students to participate in cutting-edge research at the University, mainstream research sites, and African research sites focusing on tropical diseases such as malaria. Hopefully, these seed funds will be used to develop a HHMI collaborative core laboratory in the biology department which will focus on undergraduate research in the biomedical sciences with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment in computational mathematics, biophysics, genomics, proteomics, basic cell biology, and molecular biology.”

Professor Anderson’s plans include: giving his predominately African-American undergraduate students “a competitive edge” for entering biomedical science careers, and having an intensive mentoring and summer exchange program that will take students to African countries such as Ghana, Ethiopia, Mali, or Nigeria to study tropical diseases and ethnopharmacology—the use of indigenous plants for medicinal purposes