Science Group to Bring Scholars to University

Harvard students will get a chance to rub elbows with Nobel laureates and the U.S. Surgeon General-elect on Saturday at the first even student caucus of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

The caucus will inaugurate the creation of the first nation wide network of student to aim at promoting student concerns within AAAS and Science, AAAS's weekly journal, according to a statement from the organization.

The event is part of the world's largest science symposium, the 1993 AAAS annual conference, at Boston's Hynes Convention Center from February 11 to 16.

"The caucus is basically about shuffling ideas around, seeing what problems exist, and suggesting viable or feasible solutions to these problems," said David D. Vu '94, president of the Harvard Radcliffe Science Review and co-chair of the AAAS student steering committee.

"One of the purposes is to get people together to trade ideas, so people can learn from different experiences at different colleges," Vu said.

Vu predicts that 250 to 500 people will attend the caucus.

The meeting will consist of a panel discussion by five Harvard and Yale students, followed by a speech by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, U.S. Surgeon General-elect.

The discussion will address issues such as science education from a student's perspective and the lack of women and minorities in science careers, Vu said.

The Harvard student panelists are Howard Y. Chang '94, co-president of the Harvard College Forum: Samantha F. Butts '94, and Tamarra L. Cadd, a fourth-year graduate student at the microbiology and molecular genetics department of Harvard Medical School.

"I'm hoping to get a couple of people to go out and contact schools and volunteer, and I'll be satisfied," said Cadd, a member of the Boston Area Graduate Students Association steering committee.

"The caucus is about finding some way to represent the interests of undergraduate students who are considering careers in science," said assistant professor of vertebrate biology Evan S. Balaban, a faculty advisor who helped to organize the caucus. "I'm really very, very hopeful that the student organization will become a viable part of the AAAS."