Applications open January 5, 2026. The deadline for submission is January 30, 2026.

About Dr. Philip G. Hultin

Philip G. Hultin was a professor of organic chemistry from 1993 to 2018, a passionate teacher, mentor and researcher. As a Faculty of Science senator, he channelled his love of all branches of learning to promote the education of our students. He devoted significant time and effort to creating original course material and developing the Chemistry curriculum. He was beloved by his students, who recognized his passion and prowess for teaching by nominating him for numerous awards. By the time of his passing at 57, Hultin had won 8 awards for outstanding undergraduate teaching and graduate student mentoring.

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Overview and purpose

The purpose of this fund is to develop pedagogy tools and curriculum development. Up to three Faculty of Science students will receive this award on an annual basis to assist Faculty of Science members in developing any aspect of science pedagogy and curriculum development, including but not limited to: 

  • new laboratory and lecture content,
  • teaching media, including digital media and textbooks,
  • student performance evaluation tools,
  • self-learning and self-testing tools for students,
  • websites and tools for student communication,
  • tools such as software that advances student learning in the Faculty of Science and
  • curriculum development for incorporating the ‘two-eyed’ seeing approach in Science (incorporating both Indigenous ways of knowing and Western knowledge) in support of our Wawatay program and Indigenous Initiative in Science.

The funds are meant to encourage curriculum development and assist supervisors (faculty members), but also should help enhance and broaden student interest in science education and develop their skills in this endeavour.

Value, expected work, extending the appointment Fund details

Fund value (2025-26)

The total value of this fund is a minimum of $8,960.

Location of tenure

Students undertake their research projects through any Department within the Faculty of Science, and their supervisor must hold an appointment in the Faculty of Science. 

Expected work from recipients

  • Students holding this fund must work full-time for 16 consecutive weeks between the months of May and August under the supervision of one of the supervisors and on one of the projects listed.

  • You will be working daily hours equivalent to a full-time job, and the hours you work will be determined by your supervisor.

  • If you wish to take summer courses, please discuss this with your potential supervisor before applying for this fund. 

The list of projects will be announced in the Fall Term.

Extending the appointment

If the supervisor wishes to extend the appointment, that will be funded by the supervisor and/or the department.

Professional workshop and poster competition

All recipients of the fund are encouraged to participate in the Faculty of Science lunch hour professional workshops (a minimum of four workshops over the Summer Term). Students will have the opportunity to compete in a poster competition close to the end of the Summer Term.

Eligibility

This fund is open to all UM undergraduate students in the Faculty of Science program (domestic and international students on a study permit).

Student eligibility criteria

  • Students must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
  • At the time of application in January, students must have completed at least 24 credit hours in a bachelor's program within the year immediately prior to applying (spanning January to December). Students in their first year would need to have been registered full-time in the Summer Term and full-time in the Fall Term in order to be eligible. The Academic Terms are:
    • Summer Term, May to August
    • Fall Term, September to December
    • Winter Term, January to April
  • At the time of application, students must be registered with at least an 80% course load (24 credit hours) across the Fall and Winter Terms, in any bachelor’s degree program in the Faculty of Science.
  • Students must be engaged on a full-time basis in the science pedagogy and/or curriculum development activities.

Additional considerations

Co-op students

  • Science Co-op students may be eligible to hold a Philip Hultin Pedagogy Fund for a co-op placement; however, the student and proposed supervisor should confirm with the Science Co-op Office beforehand that the project constitutes a satisfactory co-op work term.
  • Co-op students are required to maintain an 80% course load during academic terms.
  • Co-op work terms are considered full-time.

Enrollment and graduation

  • A student in their final year with a declared graduation date must be registered in a minimum 60% course load (18 credit hours) to be eligible.
  • Students who complete their degree requirements in December rather than April are eligible to hold this fund in the summer following their final term, but they must be registered and paying fees for the Winter Term (January to April) immediately prior to holding the fund.
  • Students who intend to graduate in the Winter Term 2026 are not eligible.
  • Students who have applied or will be applying to the Faculty of Graduate Studies are eligible, but must not have started their graduate program before the 16-week work period has ended.

Second degree

  • Students already in possession of a bachelor’s degree who are studying towards a second bachelor’s degree are eligible to hold a Philip Hultin Pedagogy Fund, provided they do not hold a higher degree (MSc or PhD) in the sciences.

Selection of students

Ranking will be based on Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) and a written justification for why the award is important to the student.

Students cannot hold a USRA concurrently with a Philip Hultin Pedagogy Fund.

Important dates and deadlines

  • January 5, 2026, to January 30, 2026: Application period
  • End of March: Notification of fund recipient results
  • May 4, 2026, to August 21, 2026: Duration of expected work

How to prepare, sample forms and applications Application process

Applications are currently closed. Student applications will open in early January. 

Steps to complete before the end of the Fall Term

If you would like to apply for a Philip Hultin Pedagogy Fund, you should complete these steps before the end of the Fall Term. 

  1. Review the list of eligibility requirements to ensure that you can hold a Philip Hultin Pedagogy Fund.
  2. Review the list of potential supervisors and their projects.
  3. Arrange to meet with the supervisors you would be interested in working with. Students must get pre-approval from the supervisor before submitting their application.
  4. If the supervisor agrees to support your application, please complete the application form. You will need to submit a web transcript; therefore, please wait for all your grades to be available from the Fall Term.
  5. You will need to write a statement (maximum 500 words) explaining why receiving the Philip Hultin Pedagogy Fund is important to you.
  6. Your supervisor is required to fill out the "Philip Hultin Pedagogy Fund: supervisors" form. This includes a project proposal and a reference on your behalf.
  7. You should submit your application at least 2 days before the due date and notify your supervisor so that they can provide their written recommendation before the due date.

If you are applying for this fund, there should already be an understanding in place with your supervisor of choice as to what the project will entail, and the proposed supervisor will be required to fill out their portion of this application explaining the pedagogy project.

Sample forms

Please note that the following documents are only samples of the Microsoft Forms that you need to apply through. These are provided for your review only and to help you prepare in advance for your applications, which will open in early January.

Potential supervisors and their projects

Department of Biological Sciences

Az Klymiuk 

Az.Klymiuk@umanitoba.ca

CURE Development for Biology of Fungi and Lichens

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide students with experiential training in hypothesis building and experimental design, as well as data collection and analysis.  CUREs can expand upon classic laboratory exercises in that they are often designed to interrogate genuine research questions, allowing undergraduate students to participate in discovery or applied science.  I propose to develop a CURE project to be implemented in BIOL 2260, wherein students would test the bioremediation capabilities of a variety of culturable saprotrophic basidiomycetes. 

For instance, Pleuorotus ostreatus has been investigated for its capacity to bioremediate a variety of environmental contaminants ranging from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to heavy metals.  Other saprotrophic fungi have been investigated more sporadically.  In the course of the proposed CURE, students would investigate primary literature to generate hypotheses, and test the efficacy of a diverse array of cultured lines.  Student-led sub-experiments would be designed cohesively, so as to provide survey data through multi-year implementation of this investigation.  A Philip Hulton pedagogy award would support the development of the CURE framework. 

The successful applicant to this project would a) collect, identify, and culture common saprotrophic fungi for use as experimental organisms, b) develop experimental methods for analyzing bioremediation capacity in the context of an undergraduate teaching lab.   

Department of Chemistry

Kevin McEleney

Development of a Microwave-Assisted Wittig Reaction for the New Second-Year Organic Chemistry Lab

As part of the recent separation of labs from lecture courses, we have a new stand-alone second-year organic chemistry course (CHEM 2122). With this new course and the expansion of the lab from 8 to 12 weeks, we require the development of new and more challenging experiments for the students in our course. Previously, we have developed an experiment that uses a classic organic synthesis reaction, the Wittig coupling, that allows a single step synthesis of a an ‘unsaturated ester’. This is a fundamentally important reaction in the field of organic synthesis and is taught in every textbook. However, this reaction requires the application of heat and time to get significant yields.

In Fall 2023, the current experiment was adapted to take advantage of the existing microwave reactors, purchased through the Endowment fund, that are in the Organic laboratories in the Parker Budling. These reactors allow for rapid, safe, heating in a very efficient manner (less than 30 min reaction times). The summer student on this project would expand the scope of substrates for this reaction, using commonly available chemicals in the Parker building, to enable us to offer a more challenging experiment for students in CHEM 2122. In particular, optimizing the microwave conditions as well as expanding the substrate scope of the reaction.

The summer student would be responsible for running multiple reactions with different substrates to ensure reproducibility for the second-year students. Furthermore, the student would also work with the instructor, Dr. McEleney, to develop the course materials that would be incorporated in the final lab manual. More significantly, during the initial development process, we discovered that there are few existing publications on the use of microwaves to accelerate the Witting reaction, especially the kind that we have been using in the course. We expect that the laboratory that is developed by this summer student could be published in a high-impact journal, such as Organic Letters, that would be read by a much wider organic synthesis community.

Department of Mathematics

Andrii Arman 

Math 1240 Self-Study Module Development 

MATH 1240 Elementary Discrete Mathematics is one of the foundational courses for students entering programs based in mathematical sciences, providing a proof-based introduction to discrete mathematics, primarily for students planning to major in either Mathematics or Computer Science. The course has a reputation as one of the most challenging first-year courses offered by the Department of Mathematics. A key reason for this reputation is the fast pace of the course, which is partly driven by the need to cover prerequisite material that is often only briefly addressed in the high school curriculum. 

This project aims to create a dedicated self-study module ( similar to the LevelUp course designed for calculus prerequisites) to help students review and revisit  the prerequisites for the course. 

As part of the project, students will collaborate with Dr. Arman to create review resources in the form of notes, video recordings, quizzes, and interactive activities. All materials will be integrated into a standalone module on UM Learn. Priority topics from the prerequisite precalculus course include standard function properties, counting techniques, binomial coefficients, and the binomial theorem. The resources may also be adapted for inclusion in the Local Notes open textbook for Math 1240. 

Qualifications: 

  • Minimum grade of B+ in Math 1240 

  • Familiarity with LaTeX is an asset 

  • Experience with JavaScript is beneficial but not required 

  • Minimum grade of B+ in Math 1240 

  • Familiarity with LaTeX is an asset 

  • Experience with JavaScript is beneficial but not required

Contact us

Alison Tayler
Awards Lead
Alison.Tayler@umanitoba.ca