Project Summary/Abstract The Río Piedras RISE Program is requesting funding to continue to provide its twenty-five (25) undergraduates and thirty (30) doctoral research assistants with excellent opportunities to carry out research and to participate in program activities aimed at their professional development. Since RISE is a research-intensive program, all students will be expected to present their research results at national meetings and doctoral students will be expected to publish their results in international journals. Undergraduates will also participate in summer research internships at external sites and funds will be provided to those doctoral students who desire to carry out special experiments at other universities. The RISE Program will continue to provide seminars, technical workshops and special courses directed towards strengthening and enhancing the research capabilities of all its students. In this respect, it will seek to assure that, as in the past, the large majority (> 90%) of the undergraduate students successfully pursue doctoral studies in outstanding research universities. At the graduate level the program will not only seek to assure that, as in the past, the large majority (>70%) of doctoral students continue post-doctoral research experiences in prestigious laboratories, but that they complete their Ph.D. degrees in a timely manner.