Conference encourages young women to explore scientific, technical careers

ARGONNE, Ill. (March 16, 2006) — The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory will host the 19th annual Science Careers in Search of Women conference, Thursday, March 23.

More than 350 students from nearly 60 schools throughout the Chicago area will participate in the day-long conference, which aims to encourage high school women to consider careers in science and technology.

While great strides have been made in recent decades to increase the number of women and minorities entering scientific and engineering fields, statistics show that they are still significantly underrepresented. According to the National Science Foundation, the science and engineering workforce was less than 30 percent female as of 2003, the most current year for which figures are available.

Science Careers in Search of Women gives students the opportunity to spend a day interacting with positive female role models in science. A major theme is discussing what life is like when pursuing professions in science and technology.

Students will participate in panel discussions with speakers from a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines. The students also will have the opportunity to tour several different laboratories at Argonne, including biology, chemistry, physics, computer science and engineering, as well as visit career booth exhibits. At lunchtime, students will be grouped by their areas of interest and have lunch with a woman scientist in that field, providing an opportunity for more informal, one-on-one conversation.

Keynote speaker for this year's conference will be Irene Bibyk, space communication and data systems manager at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Bibyk holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and applied physics from Case Western Reserve University. Since 1989 she has worked on spaceflight hardware development and operations at the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA). She also is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Advanced Study Program through NASA's highly competitive Fellowship Program.

Science Careers in Search of Women received a 2005 Department of Energy Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Best Practices Award, which highlights the best of the Department of Energy's federal and contractor equal employment opportunity and diversity initiatives. The conference is sponsored by Argonne's Office of the Director, the lab's Division of Educational Programs and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Argonne National Laboratory brings the world's brightest scientists and engineers together to find exciting and creative new solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.