James Eagan Holmes had made it into an exclusive academic program and was facing high stakes when police say he began buying the weapons and ammunition he later used in Friday’s movie-theater shooting.
Holmes, 24, was one of six people accepted into the neuroscience program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus’ graduate school for the 2011-12 academic year. He was there on a Neuroscience Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health — a program focused on training “outstanding neuroscientists and academicians who will make significant contributions to neurobiology,” university spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said.
The grant funds just six pre-thesis Ph.D. students at CU per year.
At the end of the program’s first year, students take preliminary oral exams, known as “prelims.” Students who do well continue on for the next year; those who have trouble talk with the training committee about possible options, including taking the exam again, Montgomery said.
The university would not disclose how Holmes did on his test.
But around the same time, he began purchasing weapons. In June, he decided to withdraw from the program.
He gave no reason for his withdrawal, Montgomery said.
She also said campus police had no contact with Holmes.
CU’s neuroscience program focuses on how the brain functions, with an emphasis on behavior, processing of information, learning and memory. A professor said Holmes was in the physiology subprogram, which specifically studies the physical mechanics of the brain.
Students take classes and conduct research during their first year. In subsequent years, the full-time focus is research.
The program typically takes five to seven years to complete.
Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661, sburnett@denverpost.com or
