There's still time to sign up
More than 100 girls from throughout Northern New Mexico can learn about careers in math and science at the annual Expanding Your Horizons conference on March 14 in Los Alamos.
Expanding Your Horizons is designed to introduce girls to a variety of different careers available in math and science, and to stress the importance of taking math and science classes during high school. In addition, speakers and presenters are women, so the conference provides the girls with female role models, said Wendee Brunish of the Geophysics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory, president of the Los Alamos Women in Science.
The conference is at the University of New Mexico, Los Alamos campus and is sponsored by the Los Alamos Women in Science organization with the help of several Laboratory associate directorates. It is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and includes science-related activities for girls in eighth to tenth grades, said Brunish.
At EYH, girls attend two workshops that include hands-on activities related to math or science. Research areas at this year's conference include robotics, rocketry, chemistry, veterinary science, forensics, and geology, said Brunish.
"Our country needs many scientists and engineers to maintain its pre-eminence in these areas, so we should not exclude 50 percent of our population from careers in these areas," said Brunish.
Karen Daniels is the conference's keynote speaker. Daniels is an assistant professor at North Carolina State University and has a doctoral degree in physics from Cornell University. She performs experiments in laboratory settings and also has a passion for sharing her excitement about physics and nature with young girls, said Brunish.
Registration and information packets were sent to twenty Northern New Mexico area schools, but there are still openings for additional participants. Girls interested in registering also can contact Jutta Kayser of Los Alamos' Ethics and Audits Group at 665-3104 or at jkayser@lanl.gov via electronic mail.
For more information, contact Brunish at 667-5724 or at wb@lanl.gov or go to http://nmnwse.org online.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and the Washington Division of URS for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.