Today at 5:30 p.m., in Room 328 of Lloyd Hall, the University of Alabama McNair Scholars will present their research projects in the 12th annual University of Alabama McNair Scholars Research Conference.

The McNair program is funded by the government and is named after Ronald E. McNair, Ph.D, who died aboard the Challenger shuttle in January 1986, according to the program’s website.  The purpose of this program is to help students who have financial needs and other roadblocks to have the proper preparation for success in being admitted into a doctoral program.

Students have the opportunity to prepare for this event during the semester. The students who begin this program are each accompanied by a faculty mentor who assists the students with any research problems.

According to an online source, 90 percent of UA’s McNair alumni have gone on to some form of post-baccalaureate study. Before these students are able to begin their work in the program, during their first year, they must go through classes to understand more about the research process and what topic will become their focus.

Throughout the scholars’ time as undergraduate researchers, there are stipends given to the researchers to cover expenditures such as housing and food. The University of Alabama is about to receive 85 percent of the program’s budget from the U.S. Department of Education to help fund 25 students who wish to be a part of the McNair Scholars program.

On Friday, the conference will host speaker Jessica Mitchell, who is a doctoral student of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Georgia and a University of Alabama McNair Scholar alumna. Mitchell will discuss certain issues going on in her field, along with things she has experienced and learned in her first year of graduate school.

Students who wish to sign up for the 2012 McNair Scholar program have until Nov. 4th and can do so at  www.graduate.ua.edu/mcnair.