 | This portrait of Marie Curie is part of the exhibit at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library that complements the conference. |
Yale is hosting a conference Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 6-8 highlighting the impact of women scientists historically and addressing the scientific challenges for the 21st century.
The event, titled "Marie Curie Nobel Centennial: Celebrating Women in Science," marks the 100th anniversary of the awarding of Curie's first Nobel Prize. (See related story)
"Marie Curie's discoveries opened a universe of new scientific experimentation, and her career has served as a powerful model for women scientists," says Provost Susan Hockfield, the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology. "Our celebration of the centenary of Marie Curie's first Nobel Prize recognizes the extraordinary progress in the fields to which she contributed, as well as the growing participation of women in the physical and biological sciences."
The symposium emphasizes and celebrates the accomplishments of Curie both as a woman and a scientist. The program draws on resources and departments from across the University, the nation and the world. It will be held at several venues on the Yale campus including the Whitney Humanities Center, the Law School and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
On Thursday, the success and diversity of Curie's life will be spotlighted in a panel titled "Intellectual Journeys of Marie Curie" at 4 p.m. A second panel at 7 p.m., "The Other Side of Science," will explore the unique challenges faced by other prominent women scientists of the 20th century. At 9 p.m., there will be a screening of the 1945 movie "Marie Curie."
President Richard C. Levin will provide introductory remarks for a session titled "Frontiers in Chemistry, Astrophysics and Biology" at 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Three world-renowned women scientists who are currently working in Curie's own areas of interest will discuss their own groundbreaking research in talks aimed at a general audience. The featured speakers will be Jacqueline Barton, a chemist from the California Institute of Technology; Vera Rubin, an astrophysicist from the Carnegie Institute; and Joan Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale.
A session on "Challenges in Science and Technology for the 21st Century" at 9 a.m. on Saturday will feature talks by three internationally acclaimed scientists who are presidents and directors of some of the most prominent scientific organizations and research universities in the United States: Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences; Shirley Tilghman, president of Princeton University; and Charles Vest, president of the Massachusettes Institute of Technology. They will offer their perspectives on important opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for science and technology, including the role of women in these fields. Hockfield will moderate the session, which will encourage an exchange of ideas among the participants and the audience.
In conjunction with the centennial, there will be a program on Friday morning devoted to exceptional high school students and their teachers. It includes a historical perspective, a tour of the Curie exhibit in the Medical Library, and is followed by a discussion of career choices with a panel that includes women in public health, astronomy, materials design, computer science and chemistry.
"Yale has made enormous strides insuring that its senior faculty has extraordinary women of science, so it is fitting that Yale is hosting this conference," says Alanna Schepartz, an organizer and session moderator of the event for students.
Hockfield served as chair for the centennial. The organizing Committee, headed by Deputy Provost for the Arts Barbara Shailor, includes faculty members Kim Bottomly, Marta Menocal, Alice Prochaska, Alanna Schepartz, Rachel Thomas, Norma Thompson and Meg Urry.
The inspiration for the program evolved from conversations at Yale's Women Faculty Forum, says Shailor: "When I became deputy provost, Susan Hockfield asked me to coordinate the efforts of the committee. I immediately saw the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of women in science and to highlight, as well, the ways in which the arts and humanities help us to understand more fully both their remarkable lives and their roles in society."
The program is free and open to the public. A full listing of events is posted on the web at www.yale.edu/whc/pdf/MC.a.pdf.
T H I S
Marie Curie symposium celebrates contributions of women scientists
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