People of Color in the Sciences: Astronomy to Zoology

Our country is facing a science and technology crisis: Baby boomers are retiring, more restrictions are being placed on immigrating students and science workers, and foreign countries are fast catching up to the United States' technology lead. The American Competitiveness Initiative, a proposal by President George W. Bush to improve training of science teachers, increase federal funding for basic research, and enhance the climate for private investment in R&D, was launched in February 2006. To meet the initiative’s goals, 10,000 more scientists, students, postdoctoral fellows, and technicians, as well as 100,000 highly qualified math and science teachers, must be contributing to America's scientific enterprise by 2015. People of Color in the Sciences is a collection of success stories about leaders at the forefront of the industry. Our hope is that the achievements of these minorities will inspire the next generation of science and technology workers.