Dr. Shirley Raps, a longtime professor and former chair of the Hunter Department of Biological Sciences, has endowed a $400,000 internship fund, enabling two biology majors to conduct research each summer at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.
Scholars will work in the lab of Drs. Scott Brady and Gerardo Morfini, who have provided substantive research experiences for Hunter undergraduate Biology majors.
“The students report they are growing as researchers. Many have been coauthors on journal articles,” said Dr. Raps. “I want to continue this exceptional research experience.” The scholarship fund is Dr. Raps’s most recent investment in Hunter College. Her significant philanthropy includes an earlier major gift, the Dr. Shirley Raps Manhattan Hunter Science Study Lounge, in the Leon and Toby Cooperman Library.
The internship fund is the most recent major gift to Hunter from Dr. Raps, an expert in the study of toxic freshwater bacteria. A fellow at the New York Academy of Sciences, Dr. Raps taught Microbiology from 1964 to 2023 and was chair of Biological Sciences for 24 years.
Under her leadership, Hunter was designated one of only 11 Capstone Colleges in the United States by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, owing to long-term funding to Principal Investigator Raps for projects combining microbiology and public policy. Hunter was the only public institution among the 11 Capstone Colleges.
Dr. Raps’s philanthropy to Hunter includes an earlier major gift to name the Dr. Shirley Raps Manhattan Hunter Science Study Lounge in the Leon and Toby Cooperman Library. Dr. Raps’s longtime involvement in Manhattan Hunter Science High School included establishing a research techniques workshop, also funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Foundation, enabling high-school students to spend a summer learning alongside Hunter faculty members in their research labs.
