Oct 04, 2011 - Claremont, Calif. - The John Stauffer Charitable Trust recently donated $150,000 to Harvey Mudd College in support of student summer research in chemistry.

Stauffer Trustees John F. Bradley, Sr., H. Jess Senecal and Michael R. Whalen presented Dean of Faculty Robert Cave and Chemistry Department Chair Hal Van Ryswyk with a check Sept. 20 during an inaugural meeting with HMC students and faculty. Trustees also visited Professor Karl Haushalter’s chemistry class.

The funds match gifts and pledges raised by HMC faculty, alumni, parents and friends.

“We are pleased for the continued support of the John Stauffer Charitable Trust,” said Van Ryswyk. “They understand the critical importance of a summer research experience in the training of our students, and we gladly accept their challenge to make such opportunities available to all of our students.”

In 2008, the Stauffer Trust awarded a matching challenge grant to HMC to establish an endowed fund for student research in chemistry. The goal is to raise $500,000 so that, when fully funded, the Stauffer Challenge will provide a total of $1 million to provide access to summer research opportunities for all chemistry students.

Since 1960, when a National Science Foundation grant allowed six HMC chemistry students to undertake research during the summer, the Summer Research Program has grown beyond chemistry to include a second NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates program and more than 100 research projects annually.

Established by prominent Los Angeles industrialist John Stauffer, founder of the Stauffer Chemical Company, the Pasadena, Calif.-based Stauffer Trust has been a longtime supporter of science education at Southern California colleges and universities. In recent years, it has expressed a special interest in supporting chemistry research.

For more information about the Stauffer Challenge, contact Jannah Maresh at jmaresh@hmc.edu.