Sunday, September 28, 2008

Diversity in the Sciences: Latinos


Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 thru October 15) is the American celebration of the culture and traditions of U.S. residents who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Sept. 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively.

Soulclap from the Urban Scientist for using this timeframe to create a Diversity in the Sciences Meme challenging everyone to name five (5) Latino Scientists, Engineers, and or Mathematicians. In the end, we should have a remarkable list of Latino talent in each major STEM discipline.

All too often, the story of the scientific discovery doesn’t mention anything about the discoverer. And without a human story or face to attach to the discovery, very often, most students (elementary through college) simply assume that the scientist was a Man, was middle-aged or older, and was white or European. One of the easiest ways to promote diversity in STEM is to make a conscious note of the diversity within the discipline and share a real human story. So, the question being asked is simple:

Can you name 5 Latin/Hispanic Scientists?
Rules:

  1. Be sure to name their discipline or field
  2. You can't choose people from your own institution or company
  3. You can't Google or use the Internet to aid in your search. (But if you know someone is a scientist, but not sure what disciple, you can look that up)
  4. You can consult textbooks, journals, and class notes
  5. You can ask others to help you brainstorm, but they can't use the Internet just to get 5 names fast (see #2).
  6. Living and deceased scientists are acceptable
  7. Links to or references about the named scientists are greatly appreciated. Let's share the knowledge ... tell us as many as you can ... even if it isn't five.

Some major scientific fields or disciplines for your consideration are: Astronomy, Biology, Biomedical & Medicine, Chemistry, Engineering, Genetics, Geography, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Social Sciences and Space & Planetary Sciences.

Well BDPAers ... what say u?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry I do not know any Hispanic Scientist at all. Anyway, just dropped by here in your blog while searching for great blogs from the Afro-community. I really love Africa and I'd love to come over there if I can raise the money needed to get to that blessed place.

Unknown said...

Captivating Capiz - I wonder how many responses we will get to this challenge of identifying Hispanic scientists.

I have a number of Black blogs in my various blogrolls in both the left- and right-hand side of this blog. Check it out!

The Urban Scientist said...

thanks for sharing with your readers.

Unknown said...

Urban Scientist - No problem. So far, it is slow going to get COMMENTS from our blog readers. I don't think BDPAers are quite used to blogs yet...