"Million-Dollar" Pitt Professor Keeps Students Digging in the Dirt

PITTSBURGH-University of Pittsburgh undergraduates and local high school students have been getting out of the classroom and digging in yards and barnyards, all in the name of science: The students have successfully unearthed and analyzed more than 30 never-before-seen bacteriophages, viruses that eat bacteria and live in the soil. Such an experience was possible because their professor, Graham Hatfull, was named a "Million-Dollar Professor" in 2002 by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), receiving a $1 million grant to support the project. Hatfull, who also is Eberly Family Professor of Biotechnology and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Pitt, was one of 20 such professors named by HHMI to bring the excitement of scientific discovery to the undergraduate classroom.

Today, HHMI announced that eight of those professors, including Hatfull, have received grants to sustain the most successful aspects of their programs and to spread them to the broader teaching community. Hatfull will receive $500,000.

"I am absolutely delighted," said Hatfull. "This enables us to move the project forward in a very positive way, by continuing an ongoing assessment of why it works, and by disseminating the system so that people elsewhere at other universities and high schools can engage in what we've established."

The institute also has designated a new crop of 20 HHMI professors, each of whom will receive $1 million to put their innovative ideas into action.

"The HHMI professors are as excited about teaching as they are about research, and it definitely rubs off on their students," said Peter Bruns, HHMI vice president for grants and special programs. "Undergraduates need a window into the excitement and fulfillment that scientists get from science. They need to discover that science is a way of learning and knowing, involving critical thinking, problem solving, and asking answerable questions. In this program we are supporting faculty to use research-grade innovation to advance science education."

In addition to his teaching, Hatfull also is an accomplished researcher, with more than 80 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, a coedited book, and funding from the National Institutes of Health, uninterrupted, for the past 16 years. In addition, Hatfull has received the Pitt Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Bacteriology, Journal of Molecular Microbiology, and Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Hatfull earned the B.Sc. degree in biological sciences from Westfield College at the University of London in 1978 and the Ph.D. degree in molecular biology from Edinburgh University in 1981.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is dedicated to discovering and disseminating new knowledge in the basic life sciences. HHMI grounds its research programs on the conviction that scientists of exceptional talent and imagination will make fundamental contributions of lasting scientific value and benefit to mankind when given the resources, time, and freedom to pursue challenging questions. The institute prizes intellectual daring and seeks to preserve the autonomy of its scientists as they pursue their research.

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4/5/06/tmw