by Linda Jakubowski
Argonne National Laboratory’s 13th annual “Science Careers in Search of Women” conference, held in May, brought more than 225 high school girls from 47 Chicago-area high schools to Argonne to explore career options in scientific and technical fields.
 CHEMISTRY AT FIRST SIGHT -- Chemist Arlene Wagner (left) provides a tour of her laboratory for high school girls at Argonne's 13th "Science Careers in Search of Women" conference. Argonne National Laboratory photo by George Joch. |
Lisette G. de Pillis, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and winner of the Argonne Maria Goeppert Mayer Distinguished Scholar award, was the keynote speaker. Her areas of expertise include numerical analysis and applied mathematics, and she has a great interest in applying math to real life scientific problems.
Students attended one of two panel discussions in the morning. “Having a Science Career and Having a Life” and “College and Beyond” featured scientific and technical employees from Argonne, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Lucent Technologies, ABC Pediatrics and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
After the morning panels, students were grouped by their main area of interest and had lunch with a woman scientist in that field, providing opportunities for informal, one-on-one conversation.
Fifteen different afternoon tours showcased various Argonne laboratories and departments, followed by visits to career booths at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source Conference Center.
Maryka Bhattacharyya, initiator for Argonne’s Women in Science and Technology program and coordinator of this year’s conference, provided closing remarks at the end of the day.
The conference was sponsored by Argonne’s Office of the Director and the lab’s Division of Educational Programs, as well as the Educational Outreach Program of the Science and Technology Center for Superconductivity.
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