The Ides of March

The Ides of March This entry brings to a close one of the longest periods of blog inactivity ever since I began this blog. Whats been keeping me so busy? Domestic selection (final stages). Its been a long season of Regular Action, but we are finally beginning to see the Class of 2010 truly take shape. I cant help but be excited. International selection. Choosing slightly more than 100 students out of more than 2500 super-qualified applicants is a daunting task. Im excited about the choices weve made, while at the same time hopeful that the students we couldnt find room for at MIT will have other great opportunities elsewhere. RSI selection. I am honored to be a part of the selection committee for the Research Science Institute, a summer program hosted by MIT and run by the Center for Excellence Education. RSI, which is free (except for the application fee), actually has a lower admission rate than the MIT freshman class. I dont know when decisions will be released, but for those students who are not admitted, I hope youll still apply to MIT, since we have 1400 more admission spaces than RSI does. MITES selection (preliminary phases). I am also honored to participate in the selection committee for the Minority Introduction to Engineering Science (free) summer program at MIT. And again, I dont know when decisions will be released, but for those students who are not admitted, I hope youll still apply to MIT, as many students turned down for MITES are still very competitive for freshman admission. Campus Preview Weekend preparation. CPW is just three weeks away! Were planning a 4-day weekend for the Class of 2010 that will hopefully help admitted students determine whether or not MIT is the right fit. For those of you who are admitted this weekend, I hope youll sign up ASAP for CPW, which is April 6-9. Intel Science Talent Search. Each year I am fortunate to attend the banquet and celebration of the Intel Science Talent Search (STS), which is also referred to as the junior Nobel Prize. Previous STS winners include Prof. Eric Lander (my MIT freshman biology teacher, and this years CPW keynote speaker). One of the reasons I really like Intel STS is because it is a great celebration of science research and education, and we need more celebrations of excellence in these fields.And in this season of high anxiety over selective college admissions, I think its worth noting that this years STS winner, Shannon Babb, will attend Utah State University, and that last years winner, David Bauer, attends the City University of New York Honors College. The Ides of March On the ides of March, I attended the awards ceremony of the Intel Science Talent Search (STS). As you may have read, this years big winner was David Bauer from New York City, who did a project on quantum dots. David is off to the CUNY Honors College next year. The STS awards ceremony is a black tie event; I was sporting my tux. Its a pretty swank event. With all the glitz, the people dressed to the nines, the great food, it made me feel like I was at the Oscars of high school science. And, in a way, I was. Science isnt celebrated enough in our society, and I think a big part of that is its not really in the nature of the science community to self-promote or to create idols, anoint heroes. This really struck me on the day after Einsteins birthday, two weeks after an article in the Science Times wondering who is the next Einstein. Could it happen again? Who or where is the next Einstein? No question is more likely to infuriate or simply leave a scientist nonplussed. And nothing, of course, would be more distracting, daunting and ultimately demoralizing than for some young researcher to be tagged the new Einstein, so dont expect to hear any names here. Its probably always a stupid question, said Dr. Lawrence Krauss, a cosmologist at Case Western Reserve University, who nevertheless said he had yet to read a profile of a young scientist that does not include, at some level, some comparison to Einstein. Dr. Stephen Hawking, the British cosmologist and best-selling author, who is often so mentioned, has said that such comparisons have less to do with his own achievements than the medias need for heroes. But maybe its more than the medias need for heroes. Perhaps it is the next generation of scientists and engineers who need role models, who need to see science as something to be celebrated. (Still, some newspapers today called the 40 Intel STS finalists top teen eggheads.) How can we inspire future scientists to follow their calling? So, even with all its excess, I think that a black-tie gala culminating in the naming of the so-called junior Nobel Prize is a great thing, as it is a great celebration of discovery and invention. And despite the Times criticism of high school research programs last week, I still think that anything that gets more students excited about doing real science is a good thing. And possibly the Science Talent Search has done that better than any other program. At the reception, I stood as a representative of the first university to get undergraduates significantly involved in research, chatting with the people behind the Research Science Institute and Californias COSMOS. Each year, more and more students are becoming involved with research at the high school and university level, thanks in part to programs like STS (started in 1942), UROP (1969), RSI (1984) and COSMOS (2000), and new programs spring up each year. I thought to myself, were making progress.