Give to IQ

IQ Biology students are supported by a variety of fellowships and scholarships. The certificate guarantees one year of full support for graduate students as they take interdisciplinary coursework and experience lab rotations across participating departments before deciding on a thesis lab in their degree-granting program of study. The program continues to provide an additional $10,000 to students after their first year.

To learn more about opportunities to support the program, please contact:

Kristin Powell, PhD, Director of Interdisciplinary Education, BioFrontiers Institute. Kristin.Powell@colorado.edu

Matthew Young, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Advancement. matthew.l.young@colorado.edu

 

Current Supporters

The Cech-Leinwand Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund was established in December of 2017, in honor of Distinguished Professor and BioFrontiers Institute Director Thomas Cech and Distinguished Professor and BioFrontiers Institute Chief Scientific Officer Leslie Leinwand. The fund provides fellowship support to top graduate students enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology (IQ Biology) PhD Program. Students learn interdisciplinary quantitative skills, while also gaining in-depth knowledge of their field with one of our ten partner departments. The first Cech-Leinwand Fellowship will be granted to an incoming student in Fall of 2019.

The IQ Biology Flatiron Fellowship was established in 2019 by Professor Tom Maniatis, CU Boulder Chemistry Department graduate of 1967, to support a top IQ Biology first-year graduate student. Professor Maniatis is known for pioneering the development of gene cloning technology and its application to both basic research and biotechnology. Throughout his career, Professor Maniatis has successfully founded a number of institutions including the New York Genome Center, the Genetics Institute, ProScript Pharma, Acceleron Pharma, and Kallyope Pharma. Professor Maniatis is the Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular biophysics at Columbia University Medical Center and the Director of the Columbia University Precision Medicine Initiative.  

The Olke C. Uhlenbeck Endowed Fellowship was established by John and Kathryn Milligan in June of 2016. The fellowship supports top first-year graduate students pursuing doctorates in STEM fields with the IQ Biology certificate program. Uhlenbeck Fellowships are granted every two years. John Milligan, now the President and Chief Executive Officer of Gilead Sciences, Inc. in Foster City, California, spent two years of his PhD studies at CU Boulder in Olke Uhlenbeck’s lab after it moved from the University of Illinois.

The William J. Freytag Endowment for the BioFrontiers Institute was established in 2009 and currently provides scholarship/fellowship support for up to three IQ Biology students each year. During his successful career leading several successful bioscience companies, Dr. Freytag was President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Boulder-based Myogen, Inc. from July 1998 until 2006. Dr. Freytag currently serves as a member of the board of directors for three health care companies: GlobeImmune, Inc., BaroFold, Inc., and BiOptix Inc.

Past Supporters

The BioFrontiers Institute and the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence (CEUCE) are collaborated on opportunities to send an undergraduate student to a research conference, workshop or laboratory in the European Union. CEUCE priorities are to provide students the opportunity to visit Europe to gain a first-hand appreciation of science in the EU. The student’s research area must be within the mission of the BioFrontiers Institute. CEUCE aims to expand the reach of the EU Centers Program to the dynamic and growing Mountain West region. On campus, the center supports the development of new courses and enrichment of existing courses to bring EU and transatlantic topics into the undergraduate and graduate curricula. Offering fellowships, internships, and research grants, CEUCE strives to create opportunities for students outside of the classroom.

The Evan & Cynthia Jones Graduate Fellowship provides support for top first-year graduate students pursuing doctorates in STEM fields with the IQ Biology certificate program through 2019. Evan Jones founded jVEN Capital, LLC, in July 2007 and serves as its Managing Member. Mr. Jones has 25 years of operating and investment experience in the life sciences industry where he founded or helped start numerous life sciences companies. He currently serves as a Director of OpGen, Inc. and Veracyte, Inc. He has been a Director of Digene since July 1990. He has been a Director of CAS Medical Systems Inc., since May 2008. He serves as Chairman of the Campaign for Public Health. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Children’s Research Institute at the Children’s National Medical Center and the Board of Visitors of the University of Maryland College of Life Sciences. Mr. Jones received a BA in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. from Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

David Goeddel provided direct support to cover the stipend, tuition and fees for an IQ Biology graduate student. Goeddel is a pioneer of the biotechnology industry who, employed at the time by Genentech, successfully used genetic engineering to coax bacteria into creating synthetic human insulin, human growth hormone, and human TPA for use in therapeutic medicine. Besides being perhaps the single most important contributor to Genentech's rise to one of the nation's premier biotech companies, his extraordinary drive and competitive work ethic embodied Genentech's early "Clone or Die" culture. Together with Steve McKnight and Robert Tjian, he founded Tularik in 1991, and was President and CEO until Tularik was acquired by Amgen for $1.3 billion in 2004. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a recipient of the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry and the Scheele Medal from the Swedish Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. David earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego, and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT) is a leading interdisciplinary training program from the National Science Foundation. Three million dollars was awarded to IQ Biology to fund the program from 2011 to 2018. The National Science Foundation created the IGERT program in response to the 1995 National Academy of Science’s Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy report and the Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Training in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Based on their recommendations, the program encompasses a more flexible interdisciplinary option for students, increases participation from women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering research, and provides students with a breadth of professional and ethical skill set for future careers.