Summer Science Program Launched

Based on the recommendation of the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and the results of an extensive survey of undergraduates’ research experiences, Harvard will launch a 10-week long residential program this summer for students doing on-campus science research.

The Program for Research in Science and Engineering (PRISE) will provide housing, some meals, and special lectures for between 100 and 140 Harvard undergraduates who have research jobs lined up with Harvard-affiliated professors in the math and sciences.

Before the start of the summer, PRISE will also help students who haven’t yet found research jobs connect with Harvard professors. The program will most likely be housed in Leverett House.

“We’re really excited about this program,” said Gregory A. Llacer, director of PRISE and assistant director of fellowships at the Office of Career Services. “One of the recommendations the Task Force made was to develop opportunities for students to have interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations....While during the day they are going to be doing research in the labs, at night they can come back to this community of scientists.”

Though the primary goal of WISE is to increase opportunities for women in the sciences, PRISE itself seeks to increase opportunities for all students, according to Llacer, and is not limited to any particular group.

“We want to give students a positive experience and encourage them to pursue careers in science, especially those in underrepresented categories and women,” Llacer said. “But we also see diversity in a very broad sense.”

Leaders of campus groups involved in the sciences reacted positively to the news of the program.

“[This program] is a resource that is long overdue for all undergraduates who are eager to stay here over the summer and garner research experience,” wrote Jehee Choi ’07, a biology concentrator and president of Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe, in an e-mail. “Not only the women in science, but also the men in science, are in need of this assistance what with the high housing and living costs that they face over the summer.”

According to Llacer, the program has just finished its planning stages and will soon begin advertising in full force. He said he has already begun meeting with potential participants and that he will hold additional information sessions over reading period.

“Anything they can do to encourage summer research would be really great,” said Kang-Xing Jin ’06, a joint concentrator in computer science and psychology and co-chair of the Harvard Society for Mind, Brain, Behavior. “This could be a great opportunity to meet some people you wouldn’t otherwise meet.”

Though the program has been a collaborative effort between University Hall and WISE, funding has come from the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, Evelynn M. Hammonds. Hammonds is also chair of the Task Force on Women Faculty and professor of the history of science and of African and African American studies.

WISE and the Task Force on Women Faculty were created earlier this year and charged with increasing the presence of females and minorities in fields where they have traditionally been underrepresented.

“I think [PRISE] is really something innovative and something that I think is really a great direction for us to go in terms of helping undergraduate scientists get research experience and also letting them be part of a large collaborative effort,” Llacer said. “After all, [collaboration] is the direction science is going in.”