DICI: 1997 Fall Newsleter

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This Newsletter by Section

• Message from the Chair
  

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Message from the Chair

Jane Maienschein

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Why Integrate and Compare?

The upcoming SICB 1998 Annual Meeting in Boston, January 3-7, 1998, will allow us to renew activity in our small, but significant section. I hope that all of you will attend and we will have an opportunity to discuss our central theme. As the 21st century approaches, the need for the integration of diverse perspectives in the biological sciences is greater than ever. In addition, changes in the orientation of the nation toward the issue of how to achieve diversity in the scientific and technical workforce may have a bearing on our ability to perform such integration. Will we arrive in the new millennium with less diversity in the pool of scientists than before the civil rights movement of the 60s? Will this lack of diversity affect our thinking about biological problems? Is this even a legitimate topic of discussion for scientists? How can scientific professional societies engage in the public debate? All of these questions are of interest to me. I look forward to the opportunity to initiate this discussion in Boston. This might serve as one of the topics that could be further developed for our planned symposium: "Why Integrate and Compare" tentatively scheduled for the year 2000.

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