HHMI Professors Program | LSU Office of Strategic Initiatives

HHMI Professors Program

Welcome to the HHMI Professors Program!

Founded in 2002, supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the LSU HHMI Professors Program was designed to promote diversity in the STEM disciplines by increasing the number of underperforming, nontraditional students seeking terminal degrees (PhDs).

  • HHMI was founded in 1953 by aviator, engineer and former trustee, Howard Hughes.
  • Since 1988, HHMI has awarded more than $1 billion in grants.
  • In 2001, HHMI announced a competitive grant program called the HHMI Professors Program.
  • Universities were invited by HHMI to nominate faculty members to compete for the awards.
  • Nationwide, only 20 institutions were honored with the $1 million award.
  • Accompanying LSU are institutions such as Cornell University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a nonprofit medical research organization that plays a powerful role in advancing biomedical research and science education in the United States. The Institute’s Science Education Program supports initiatives with the power to transform education in the life sciences for all students. Our objective is to recruit and develop talented students who will be the future leaders of science. HHMI seeks to support pre-college and undergraduate science education by integrating a variety of approaches that will engage students as they make critical decisions about which career path to pursue.