New Student-Faculty Group Seeks to Increase Diversity in Sciences

A group of students and faculty from across the University will meet next semester to discuss why science and technology remain stubbornly resistent to diversity.

The Interfaculty Working Group in Science and Technology, a project funded by a grant of about $7,500 from the office of Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 and led by senior faculty members, will hold its first meeting on Feb. 12 at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG).

"I would like to get some understanding of how the community of science and the practice of science would be different if indeed we had a more diverse community," said group leader Lewis M. Branscomb, professor emeritus in public policy and corporate management at the KSG.

The group will include about 20 undergraduates and graduate students representing several Harvard organizations, including Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences' Harvard Biotechnology Club and Minority Biomedical Scientists of Harvard.

The group will discuss how to achieve greater diversity in science and technology during three dinner meetings second semester.

Two of the meetings will include guest speakers, including MIT professor Sheila Widnall, a former secretary of the Air Force.

In addition to attending the meetings, participating students will be asked to read background material and submit a two-page discussion of their reactions, which will be incorporated into the working group's final report to the provost.

Jenny I. Shen '01, a chemistry concentrator and co-president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association, said she looks forward to the opportunity to discuss diversity in science and technology with professors and peers.

"I'm really pleased that they're planning to do this," she said.

Branscomb cited the "sharply falling number" of women and minorities involved in science and technology, and emphasized that the reason for this decline, while frequently debated, is not yet known.

"The fact that it's not easy to explain tells me that we don't really understand the issue of why science is not more diverse in its participants," he said.

Branscomb, along with other members of the group's coordinating committee, is a well-known pioneer of research efforts involving diversity in science and technology.

Gerhard Sonnert, a physics research assistant and a member of the working group's coordinating committee, said he was excited by the opportunity to discuss issues like "Jeffersonian science," a combination of research science and social awareness.

One of the theory's most interesting applications, Sonnert said, is its impact on women and minorities, who appear to be detached from the world of science not because of a lack of ability but because "to women and minorities, the image of science is an ivory tower pursuit that has nothing to do with real life."

Jeffersonian science, however, calls for a broader approach to basic research science which also encompasses social objectives, and thus might be more enticing to women and minorities, he said.

The need to explore this possibility was a "major premise" behind the working group, Sonnert said.

"We want to hear what students have to say," he said.

The Provost's Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration, which provided financial support for the group, also funded 12 other working groups for the current academic year. In order to receive funding, a group must include at least six faculty members with primary appointments at Harvard from at least three different schools.

According to Assistant Provost for Interfaculty Programs Sean T. Buffington '91, after proposals are submitted, the provost himself--with input and recommendations from his staff--determines which proposals will receive funding.

The Interfaculty Working Group on Science and Technology includes faculty members from the KSG, the physics department and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

--Staff writer Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at shoichet@fas.harvard.edu.