UAB Undergraduates Awarded Fellowship to Participate in Cutting-edge Research

Two UAB students have been selected for the Amgen Scholars U.S. Program. They will each travel to other institutions to conduct research projects this summer.

Jarrod Hicks, a neuroscience student in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychology and School of Medicine’s Department of Neurobiology, has been admitted to the program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Akhil Kaushik, a biology major in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been admitted to the program at Washington University in St. Louis.

Both Hicks and Kaushik are students in the UAB Honors College Science and Technology Honors Program. They are the third and fourth students from UAB to be selected for the Amgen Summer Research Scholarship since 2014. 

Made possible through a 12-year, $50 million commitment from the Amgen Foundation, Amgen Scholars summer program allows undergraduates from across the globe to participate in research opportunities at world-class institutions.

Undergraduate participants benefit from undertaking a research project under top faculty, being part of a cohort-based experience of seminars and networking events, and taking part in a symposium where they meet their peers, learn about biotechnology, and hear from leading scientists.

“It is a great honor to have been selected as an Amgen Scholar. While I have had the pleasure of working on a number of neuroimaging research projects here at UAB, this summer I will have the opportunity to learn new research skills and techniques as I engage in computational research of the auditory system in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT,” Hicks said. “Besides providing an avenue to combine my interests in mathematics and neuroscience, the Amgen Scholars Program offers the chance to learn from and work with distinguished scientists. I am proud to have been selected for this program and look forward to this summer with excitement!”

“Getting into the Amgen Scholars Program to conduct cutting-edge research this summer means a lot to me. After coming into college without any real research experience, I have become extremely appreciative of the training and education from UAB and SciTech Honors Program. It has given me a solid foundation for biomedical research and enabled me to be competitive on the national stage,” Kaushik said. “I am grateful for this opportunity this summer to gain exposure to a new facet of the scientific world and further understand how research and medicine synergize. I will use the knowledge and skills I gain from this experience to give back to the community and scientific world to the best of my abilities.”