New compounds

Earlier this year, Craig Werner '84's computer was looking for a date.

No wonder, then, that Werner decided to help form the University's first matchmaking service for the high-tech creatures. Its not-so-romantic name: The Harvard Computer Society.

"The fact is that computers are not given the treatment at Harvard that they deserve. Nor are people who work with them given respect," the Quincy resident says.

The society is one of several undergraduate groups geared towards promoting science and creating a better environment for student scientists at Harvard.

Werner's 230-member society has organized user groups for undergrads with similar types of personal computers, arranged weekly seminars to discuss new software, brought in speakers from outside the University, and published a monthly newsletter.

"You can't ignore computers even though a lot of people want to," be comments, adding. "We try to link the people who have the questions with those who have answers."

For Rebecca Himmelhoch '84, the Harvard Space Research Group was more a job than it was an adventure. Himmelhoch has parleyed her contacts on behalf of the organization into employment this fall at a space consulting firm.

The four-year-old group has spent part of its time reaching out in the Cambridge area to set up contacts for undergraduates interested in space research. One such project was last fall's space job fair held at M.I.T., co-sponsored with the Museum of Science.

"We try to put together people interested in space at the University and make other people more aware of how useful space can be," Himmelhoch says of the 15-member organization, adding, "Most of us know more about it too."

Some of the groups are created expressly to augment the normal course curriculum. "After my sophomore year," says Adriane P. Concus '84, "I felt as if I was the only one doing Applied Math. There were no role models and no camaraderie."

So two years ago Concus, with help from Radcliffe Associate Dean Phillippa A. Bovet, formed Women in Science. After a turnout of 75 undergraduates for the group's opening dinner, attendance for periodical meals with women faculty has dropped to about 15. Yet Concus says she thinks the organization has facilitated greater contact between women undergraduate and faculty scientists such as Nancy E. Kleckner '68, professor of biochemistry, and Margaret J. Geller, lecturer on astronomy, both of whom have appeared at question and answer dinners.

At the meetings, the undergrads were interested in the faculty member's research, but were more curious about their career paths, how they balanced their family lives, and other more personal questions. Concus reports. "We certainly found role models and met other students who had similar interests in science," she adds.

Bovet says she is pleased with the progress of the group, saying something that could be applicable for most of the undergraduate science groups. "It gives students, whether they have doubts or are strongly involved in science, an opportunity to explore the field."