ALUMNI
AND FRIENDS
Your gifts make a difference! Over the years, we have been fortunate to receive generous donations from a variety of supporters, including former graduates, corporate sponsors, and philanthropists. These gifts keep our donors involved in the mission of the BCMB department, which is to provide a high quality, scholarly, educational experience for our undergraduate and graduate students that prepares them for a wide variety of career options, to promote science awareness and literacy in the broader community, and to advance scientific knowledge through our research efforts.
These gifts have made it possible for us to offer undergraduate scholarships and sponsor graduate fellowships that support dissertation research on cutting-edge topics in modern biology. Other donations have been used for Research Incentive Awards to faculty who propose pilot projects that promise to lead to extramural grant funding from national agencies. Our generous donors have made all of these things possible. If you are interested in enriching the efforts of the Department of BCMB, please consider contributing to our department’s general BCMB Enrichment Fund or to more specialized funds listed below.
Unrestricted Funds
The BCMB Enrichment Fund is for unrestricted gifts. This fund allows the department to put money into its mission in a wide variety of ways. Immediate needs can be met, and long-term planning strategies can also be considered. Our Annual Fund campaign for 2011-12 will be targeted to this fund, with three areas of high priority:
1. Sponsoring undergraduate research (current efforts)
2. Outreach activities involving K-12 education
3. Research Incentive Grants for faculty and postdoctoral researchers
Restricted Funds
The BCMB department also has specific funds that support undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, and faculty research. Donations can be made to any of the following restricted funds:
The Tyler Duke Foundation Scholarship has been established in memory of a talented BCMB major, Tyler Duke. This $1,000 scholarship recognizes an outstanding BCMB undergraduate major who intends to attend pharmacy school after graduation from UT.
The C. W. Fite Endowment is used to fund an undergraduate and graduate fellowships each year. The undergraduate award recognize an outstanding BCMB undergraduate major who demonstrates exceptional professional promise with a $2,000 scholarship.
The Emette and Nannie Hale Memorial Fund provides scholarships for students majoring in BCMB and known to be pursuing postgraduate professional education/training in dentistry.
The Ray Holton Fund was established to support plant sciences at the University of Tennessee. Among other things, this fund supports a yearly award to an outstanding graduate student working on plant science research.
The Robert and Nell Keenan Memorial Fund is used to support a fellowship for an outstanding graduate student in BCMB. Preference is given to students from Davidson, Warren, or Williamson County, Tennessee.
The W. Sherman Kouns Memorial Fund was established to support graduate student education and research in the BCMB department. This fund supports an annual award that recognizes outstanding teaching by a graduate student.
How Can You Get Involved?
There are many different forms of gifts that can be made. We receive sums ranging from $5 to $10,000 that are made as one-time gifts to our BCMB Enrichment Fund. With a contribution of $25,000 or more, an endowment can be established for which the principal is invested and interest earned becomes available for departmental use. You also may consider a bequest, a life income gift, or a gift from your retirement plan to the department through planned giving. Endowments can be specified for use according to the donors’ wishes. All of the gifts to BCMB are coordinated through development officials at UT, and appropriate tax benefits are always considered. If you wish to donate to the department please make your check payable to the University of Tennessee Department of BCMB. Please indicate that the check is for the BCMB Enrichment Fund (for unrestricted use by the department) or for one of the restricted funds listed above, and mail it to the address below.
The University of Tennessee
Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology
1311 Cumberland Avenue
309 Ken & Blaire Mossman Bldg.
Knoxville, TN 37996-1939
For more information about gift giving to BCMB, please contact the Department Head, Dr. Gladys Alexandre (galexan2@utk.edu, 974-5148) or Jessi Arnidis, Senior Director of Development (jarnidis@utfi.org, 974-2504).