Predoctoral Fellowships are awarded to qualified students who are enrolled in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UTMB. These fellowships are awarded on an employment rate of a twenty-hour week (half-time) for a period of one year. This twenty-hour week has been established in order to allow predoctoral fellows to earn supplemental income without jeopardizing the McLaughlin Fellowship. If a predoctoral fellow works in another job or area on campus (UTMB) in order to supplement his salary, the appointment cannot exceed twenty hours per week.
Predoctoral awards are made for a period of two years, but fellows must demonstrate acceptable progress after the first year in their renewal application. The renewal applications do not compete with new applications. McLaughlin predoctoral fellows receive a stipend matching that established by the Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences for state-sponsored teaching and research assistantships.
According to the Bylaws of the McLaughlin Endowment, “Fellowships shall be for research and not require any other services to the University such as routine teaching or clinical duties.”
All McLaughlin predoctoral fellows must maintain at least a 3.0 average, as required by the Graduate School. McLaughlin predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows are expected to make research progress that is reported to the McLaughlin Committee at the time of fellowship renewal each year. In addition, the fellows are expected to report their observations in peer-reviewed journals. Our hope is that every fellow will develop into a productive scientist with a successful scientific career.
In an attempt to make fellowship funds extend to as many fellows as possible, all McLaughlin fellows are expected to make a good faith effort to obtain support from external agencies. Any fellow that is successful in obtaining extramural funding that replaces at least six months of McLaughlin-funded salary will be eligible to receive a research incentive award of $2,500, subject to committee approval. If the support obtained from an external source is less than that received through the McLaughlin Fellowship, the McLaughlin Committee will endeavor to make up this salary difference.
Although multiple predoctoral applications may be submitted by applicants from a single lab, only one predoctoral fellowship can be awarded to any single laboratory each year.
Please note that any student applicant who has already received two years of support from another source (e.g., a T32 grant or non-McLaughlin fellowship) is only eligible for a one-year fellowship. Previously-funded students must also have submitted at least one paper for publication, as primary author, to be eligible to apply.