UCI Beckman Scholars Program

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Program Requirements for the UCI Beckman Scholars

As a condition of the Award, the Scholars are required to perform research activities part-time (ten hours per week) during one academic year, and full-time over two consecutive summers (ten 40-hour weeks each summer) immediately before and after this academic year. In addition to doing research, the award comes with several stipulations:

  • Scholars must remain in good academic standing for the duration of the award
  • The matched Mentor must remain the Scholar’s Mentor for the duration of the Scholar’s term (the Scholars cannot change their mentor midway through the program).
  • The Scholar may be invited to attend the annual Beckman Symposium in each of the two summers. All second-summer Scholars will be asked to exhibit their research through poster or oral presentations.
  • After completing their research term (in October), the Scholar will be required to submit an independent report answering questions about research findings and discussion of other activities under this award, collaboration between the Scholar, Mentor, and Mentor’s lab, career and/or education plans, etc.
  • After completion of the program, Scholars must continue to provide updated contact information and be willing to give annual updates to UCI, as these updates are required for UCI’s future Beckman Scholars funding.

Program Stipend and Research Allowance

The award consists of $6,800 stipend in summer 1, $4,800 stipend during the academic year, $6,800 stipend in summer 2, deposited into the Beckman Scholar's Zot account. In addition, $2,800 towards research-related travel and supplies of the Beckman Scholar, and $5,000 towards supporting Faculty Mentor's activities will be deposited into a university spending account. Once selected to be a Beckman Scholar, a student will retain their funding as long as they continue to excel academically, are in good academic standing, and their research work shows satisfactory progress.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the 2024-25 cycle, the student applicant should fit the following criteria:

  • Citizen or Permanent Resident of the United States of its possessions.
  • Full-time student at UCI in good academic standing through at least Spring quarter 2025, available to participate as researchers as follows: full-time during the summer of 2024; part-time during the academic year of 2024-25; full-time during the summer of 2025. Students graduating in spring 2025 are still eligible to apply as long as they are committed to full-time participation in Summer 2025, immediately following graduation.
  • Pursue independent research under the auspices of the approved Faculty Mentors for the entire duration of the award.

Application and Selection

The application deadline is March 15, 2024. Please contact Prof. Sergey Nizkorodov before submitting your application to make sure you are eligible.

To apply for this program, the applicants must submit the following items. Please convert all files to PDF format before uploading.

  • A carefully-crafted resume. The UCI Division of Career Pathways is an excellent resource for helping you with resume preparation.
  • A thoughtful personal statement describing applicant’s relevant background and future goals. The length of the statement should be 1000-1500 words, single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font. As a guide, the personal statement can be written in a manner similar to those for NSF graduate research fellowship applications. The UCI Graduate Division is a good resource for preparing these statements.
  • The proposed research plan. The length of the statement should be 2 pages (excluding references), single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font. The applicant may ask the proposed Faculty Mentor for feedback, but the proposal must be original and written by the applicant.
  • Unofficial transcript(s) for all the coursework from UCI and from colleges attended before UCI.
  • Names of two faculty members who can provide letters of recommendation. For example, one of them could be the proposed Faculty Mentor, and the other one could be a faculty member from UCI or prior college, who is closely familiar with applicant’s academic and research accomplishments.

After the application documents are submitted, the Beckman Scholars selection committee will identify the top 5 applicants for an interview. Merit, diversity, equity and inclusion will be considered as factors of equal weight during the Scholar selection. The applicants will be judged by the quality of their previous research experience, originality of the proposed research, strength of recommendation letters, motivation to pursue a PhD or other scientific pursuits, writing skills, and communication skills assessed during the interview.  The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation fully expects the Beckman Scholars to remain in science after graduation. Therefore students pursuing non-science careers are not likely to be selected for this program. Two students will be selected for funding at the end of the process by April 2024.

To start the application, click on the link below. You will be asked to sign into your Google UCI account (which all UCI students have) to access this form.

APPLICATION FORM