The Department of Physics at Southern University Baton Rouge (SUBR) proposes to carry out a comprehensive research and enrichment project for underrepresented and eligible minority physics undergraduates. Referred to as the Timbuktu Academy, this project is named after the University of Timbuktu, a bastion of scholarship in the middle of this millennium. The Timbuktu Academy will enroll and support twenty (20) physics graduates, seventy per cent of whom are expected to earn Ph.D. degrees in physics and related fields. Research participation, enrichment activities, and a stimulating academic advisement are central activities of the Academy. The proposed activities are guided by basic tents of cognitive science, the taxonomies of the cognitive and affective domains, and recommendations from several national reports. About ten percent (10%) of African American scholars who earned Ph.D. degree in physics, in the last five years, are alumni of the SUBR Physics Department. Recent enhancements of the Department's resources are added predictors of the expected success of the Academy. Existing and future linkages and partnerships with federal, industrial, and academic laboratories are essential factors in support of the operation and expansion of this Academy for the development of research careers for minority Scholars (RCMS).
