About AGEM

The Alliance for Graduate Education in Mississippi (AGEM) comprises the state's four PhD-granting institutions — The University of Mississippi (as the administrative lead), Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, and the University of Southern Mississippi — in partnership with the several state and regional Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCS's) and smaller colleges. AGEM is a comprehensive program designed 

  • to enhance entry into and successful completion of underrepresented students in doctoral programs in science, math, and engineering technology (SMET) fields;

  • to increase the number of these students who continue to pursue academic careers; and

  • to bring about a systemic change in attitudes of faculty, administrators, and students with regard to minority pipeline issues.

What will this program offer?

     Besides involving cooperation and mutual support among the participating institutions, the AGEM program will offer a variety of support programs for graduate students. These will include: 

  • direct graduate student support (from $12,000 to $15,000 per year, depending on the discipline)

  • remission of tuition

  • graduate bridge programs

  • skills development seminars

  • mentoring programs

  • travel and research development funds

  • seminar series

  • summer faculty development program

  • annual state-wide AGEM conference to promote networking

What academic programs are included? 

     A student can choose among all the SMET doctoral degree programs at the state’s four comprehensive institutions. An abbreviated list is given below. 

The University of Mississippi: 

biology, chemistry and biochemistry, physics, mathematics, various engineering areas, pharmacology, medicinal and natural products chemistry 

Jackson State University: 

chemistry and environmental sciences 

Mississippi State University: 

biological sciences, chemistry, engineering physics, mathematics, various engineering areas, environmental toxicology, and agricultural sciences 

The University of Southern Mississippi:

biology, chemistry and biochemistry, polymer science and engineering, scientific computing, and marine sciences. 

     A number of national centers are associated with the consortium universities. Some of these include the centers for supercomputing research, remote sensing, physical acoustics, natural products, polymer science, computational chemistry, computational hydrosciences, computational field simulations, signal and information processing, high voltage research, microelectronics, macromolecular photochemistry, and photophysics.