“In science, there are no limits to where I can go, both geographically and intellectually,” says Vladan Martinović, a 2010 University of Cambridge Amgen Scholar who was raised in a small village outside Zrenjanin, Serbia. Thanks to his experience in the program, Vladan has returned to Cambridge now as a PhD candidate at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. With help from multimedia and interactive tools, the Program’s new 2013 Annual Report tells the stories of motivated individuals like Vladan.
2013 marked the seventh year of the Amgen Scholars Program— funded by a $34 million commitment by the Amgen Foundation to inspire and prepare a new generation of scientists — and success for its participants from both past and present. In the summer of 2013, the Program welcomed 331 enthusiastic and talented undergraduates into research labs at 13 leading host universities across the U.S. and Europe. The students conducted independent, hands-on research for 8 to 10 weeks under the guidance of leading faculty researchers.
2013 Amgen Scholars also join the growing ranks of alumni, many of which complete the Program with their sights set on graduate school. And, in fact, several Scholars from the first cohort in 2007 have already earned their PhDs and are looking ahead to life after graduate school.
One aspect of the Amgen Scholars Program that distinguishes it from other summer research programs is its two-day symposia held in the U.S. in California and in Europe in Cambridge. Scholars meet to hear firsthand from academic and industry leaders and learn more about the careers available to them.
More information about the 2013 program, as well as interactive maps showing the home school locations of all 2013 Scholars, is included in the report.