When Dr. Ted Greenwood talks about boosting the number of it under-rep presented minority doctoral holders in the sciences, there is a no-nonsense resolute quality to his voice.

"Some [philanthropists] Put money in the Students' hands directly. We don't do that," he says. "We put the money in the hands of faculty,"

Greenwood is the program officer of a four-year-old program funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. It was designed with input from science and engineering faculty around the country and awards roughly $3 million in grants annually to individual faculty members or Clusters of faculty Who have a proven track record for producing African American and other under-represented doctoral graduates in mathematics, science, and engineering.

The funds are explicitly earmarked for helping faculty increase their yield exponentially over a three-year period. So, for example, a faculty member or research team that is producing two doctoral students from under-represented groups in the sciences each year would receive money to increase that yield to four over the three-year period Faculty already producing four would he expected to produce eight by the end of the grant period. Program funds cannot he used to sustain pre-funding production rates.

To receive an award, applicants must submit a detailed plan for how they intend to achieve the increased yield, such as recruitment activities, retention programs, fellowship grants and so on. The plan must then he approved by the foundation before any funds are disbursed Throughout the grant period, recipients are required to keep abreast of their progress and adjustments are made to the strategy if it is agreed that such intervention is needed.

Faculty from Stanford University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Auburn University, City College of New York, Cornell University, Rice University, and the University of Maryland-College Park are among those who have participated in the program,