December letter from the WISE Director

This past November, I had the honor of chairing the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) Annual Meeting held jointly with the Society of Women Engineers' (SWE) annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland. CPST collects, synthesizes, analyzes and disseminates reliable information about the science and engineering workforce in the United States. It also serves as a forum for objective discussions of data implications and related policy issues by regularly bringing together representatives from academic, corporate, foundation, government and professional society sectors to exchange data and information on topics of mutual interest. UM is an Academic Institutional Patron of CPST.

The theme of this year's CPST annual meeting was "Who Will Do Science and Engineering?" Dr. Willie Pearson, a professor of sociology in the School of History, Technology, and Society, Georgia Institute of Technology, was the keynote speaker. Dr. Pearson was the co-editor along with the late Alan Fechter, of the 1994 book of the same name. He provided an interesting perspective on the differences, and sometimes the lack of differences, between the STEM educational pipeline and workforce between in1994 and today. He was followed by two panel discussions on the 21st Century Challenges for STEM Education: Who is being left behind? and the 21st Century Challenges in STEM Employment: Workers without Borders. For more information about the conference see CPST.org.

CPST is an invaluable source for information and data on STEM education and workforce. For over 50 years, CPST has been providing educators, policy-makers, and CEO's with the necessary background and research findings to make informed decisions and create relevant programs to foster the success of the next generation of scientists and engineers. If you ever need any data for any purpose, especially for the preparation of grant proposals, please contact us and we can arrange access to the vast data collection on the CPST website.

December 2008 eNews

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