Supplement

For Ben Ortiz, an assistant professor in biology at Hunter College of the City University of New York, a career in science was something he couldn't imagine when he was growing up.

Growing up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Marietta Vazquez' doctor's visits would often turn into long question-and-answer sessions.

Lafayette Frederick was born in Dog Bog, Mississippi, and grew up with five brothers and sisters on a cotton farm in Missouri, where his sharecropper father taught him and other local kids in a one-room schoolhouse that doubled as a church.

When Avery August was a college student, he thought his love of science meant he could pursue only one career: medicine.

Throughout much of his career, Tin-Chuen Yeung has straddled two worlds within the life sciences: bench science and business development.

Being a woman helped Diane Pennica to make the greatest breakthrough of her career, but not in a way one might expect.

It's all about who you know, they say, and success in the life sciences is no exception.

At the National Institutes of Health, the premiere biomedical research institution in the United States, the struggle against human disease takes on particular significance when we consider the disproportionate impact these diseases have on the country's minority communities.

The word "minority" is becoming a misnomer in many parts of the United States.

Early this year, Harvard University President Lawrence Summers made his now-famous remarks speculating that female scientists may have difficulty winning tenured faculty positions because of differences in "intrinsic aptitude."

When Juan Magana applied to University of California, Berkeley, at his sister's urging, he didn't know much about the school.

In 1995 it was unimaginable that within 10 years the presidents of Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and University of California at San Diego would all be women, and remarkably, women scientists.

Bayer Corporation's Rebecca Lucore is worried about the future.

Employees at Bayer Biological Products in Berkeley, Calif., throw a party once a year celebrating their diverse cultural backgrounds.

The first in her family to go to college, Jocelyn Nadeau entered Smith College intending to major in psychology.

in industryand academia.

Function at Hunter College of the City University of New York is among the most diverse in the sciences.

Creativity and innovation are essential to the pharmaceutical sector.

This resource guide lists a selection of scholarships, grants, organizations, and other support targeted to underrepresented groups, including individuals with disabilities.

Anne Swanson can't think of a time when she wasn't fascinated by science.