AAAS Speakers Pose The Question: Can We Fill The Science Pipeline?

156th national meeting explores ways to attract a new generation into the field as 6,000 scientists gather in New Orleans. WASHINGTON--This year, perhaps more earnestly than ever before, participants at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will wrestle with the problem of how to ensure that there are enough scientists pursuing the quest for knowledge in the 21st century. The 156th national meeting runs from Feb. 15 through Feb. 20 in New Orleans. For the third consecutive year, the association's presidential address will be devoted to the topic. Richard Atkinson, chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, explores a "human resources crisis in science" and asks the questions: "Can It Be Averted? Can It Be Resolved?" Last year, in San Francisco, University of Chicago physicist Walter Massey challenged his colleagues to find ways to attract and retain greater numbers of students, especially minorities, in science. And the year before that, in Boston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics professor Sheila Widnall outlined the obstacles facing women who try to enter the profession. But the topic isn't just a concern of the organization's top brass. The plenary speaker for the Sarton Lecture on the history of science is Cornell University's Margaret Rossiter. Her talk is entitled "Officially Encouraged, Institutionally Discouraged: Women in Science, 1940-1968." Rossiter is working on a sequel to her path-breaking 1982 book that cast first light on the careers of hundreds of women scientists whose contributions had not previously been recognized. Students in the area will benefit from Public Science Day. Some 12,000 children from prekindergarten through grade 12 in public, private, and parochial schools are expected to participate in dozens of activities on February 15, the day before the start of regular scientific sessions. The idea for such a celebration of science grew out of the long-time practice of inviting local high school students to small seminars with leading scientists. This year's activities will involve twice the number of students who participated in last year's inaugural science day in San Francisco, says Linda Lewis, chairman of the planning committee and director of the not-yet-opened Louisiana Science Centre. The students will travel to sites around the city for lectures and hands-on experiences in a range of scientific disciplines. On Monday, February 19, the center will cosponsor a luncheon for local business executives focusing on the importance of an educated work force. It will feature talks by underwater explorer Robert Ballard and researcher John McCarthy of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. This year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science includes the following major events: Thursday, Feb. 15, 8:30 P.M.: Norman Hackerman, chairman, Welsh Foundation scientific advisory board, presents a talk on "Education, Science, Technology, and Society." Friday, Feb. 16, 1 P.M.: Victor Nussenzweig of New York University discusses "The Impact of Molecular Biology on Vaccine Development." Friday, Feb. 16, 1 P.M.: David Hamburg, president of the Carnegie Corp. of New York, focuses on "Preventing Damage in Crucially Formative Periods of Human Development." Friday, Feb. 16, 8:30 P.M.: Allan Bromley, presidential science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, examines "Science and Technology in the Bush Administration." Saturday, Feb. 17, 1 P.M.: Margaret W. Rossiter of Cornell University presents a talk titled "Officially Encouraged, Institutionally Discouraged: Women in Science, 1940-1968." Saturday, Feb. 17, 1 P.M.: Max Perutz of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England, discusses "Mechanisms of Cooperativity and Allosteric Regulation in Proteins." Saturday, Feb. 17, 8:30 P.M.: Anthony S. Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and director of the AIDS Office at NIH, discusses "Immunopathogenic Mechanisms of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection." Sunday, Feb. 18, 1 P.M.: Ray Marshall of the University of Texas examines "Quality Education for Minorities and the American Future." Sunday, Feb. 18, 8:30 P.M.: Richard C. Atkinson, chancellor, University of California-San Diego, addresses "The Human Resources Crisis in Science: Can It Be Averted? Can It Be Resolved?" Monday, Feb. 19, 8:30 A.M.: A symposium on "Perestroika and Scientific Freedom in the Soviet Union" (see special section beginning on page 1) covers reforms during the Gorbachev era and East-West exchanges. Monday, Feb. 19, 1 P.M.: Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, discusses "Global Warming and Recent Climate Change." Monday, Feb. 19, 8:30 P.M.: Sally K. Ride, director, California Space Institute, and former astronaut, talks about "Monitoring Earth From Space." Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1 P.M.: Vernon Montcastle of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine discusses "Brain Representations and the Construction of Reality." There are many themes at this year's meeting that will sound familiar to regular attendees of this, the most interdisciplinary, meeting of North American scientists. For the third straight year, for example, AAAS will offer a three-day seminar on protein folding. The idea of embedding scientific seminars into the five-day meeting was launched in 1987 to shore up sagging attendance. It is meant to attract those who complain that the annual meeting lacks sufficient substance. The New Orleans meeting also features a three-day seminar on the biology of parasitism. It hopes to tap the local interest in tropical medicine. But conference organizers acknowledge that scheduling these seminars, for which participants pay a separate fee of $100 apart from the regular $95 registration fee, is an inexact science. "It has to be cost-effective," says AAAS's Arthur Herschman. "The theory is, `If people like it, we'll keep offering it.' " He says that this may be the final year for protein folding, but that the association is open to any topic for which there's a demonstrated interest. Consistent with that thinking, this year's meeting also features two short courses, each one day in duration, held on the day before the meeting officially begins. One is on applying some of the new mathematical tools to understand chaotic behavior; the other offers hands-on computer training for biomedical scientists interested in applying mathematical models to their research. "It seems people are eager for this type of how-to information," says Herschman. "We'll probably repeat the idea next year." At the same time, he says that the association will review the success of the seminars after this year's meeting and may consider alternatives as it begins to plan for next year's conference in Washington, D.C. AAAS Executive Director Richard Nicholson, in charge of his first meeting since joining the association last spring after 20 years at the National Science Foundation, believes that the content has improved significantly in the past few years. "There seems to be a general feeling that the annual meeting has been revitalized," he says. "And a large part of the credit goes to a program committee that was created a few years ago to take a close look at the content and make a deliberate effort to improve the quality of the individual sessions." He said the dozen or so members of the committee set overall themes for each year's meeting, as well as serving as a peer review panel for the ideas proposed by individual sections of the association. Internally, Nicholson says that AAAS is "taking a fresh look" at its communications program following the departure of 14-year media veteran Carol Rogers. "I'm thinking of expanding our efforts," he says. "We don't have a public affairs arm in the traditional sense, and no formal liaison with Capitol Hill. We do pieces of this already, but the real question is: Do we want an office that's more active in getting out the message of advancing science?" In the meantime, Nicholson and others at AAAS say they are pleased with the advance registration for the New Orleans meeting. They are expecting a crowd of nearly 6,000, a level below attendance at San Francisco and Boston but one that Nicholson says is "quite good" given the size of the local scientific community. And it's hard to complain about being in New Orleans in February. Asked what the biggest difference is between this year's meeting and previous recent gatherings, Herschman cracks that the 1990 conference features "the warm weather and Mardi Gras." In addition to offering nonstop entertainment, the carnival will actually generate a little extra income for the association. Notes Herschman, "several groups will be renting the hotel ballrooms that we're using. But it's no problem: they only need them from midnight to 6 A.M."

AAAS Speakers Pose The Question: Can We Fill The Science Pipeline?

The Scientist Staff

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