science/technology
BLACK CHEMISTS LOOKING AHEAD Annual conference calls for black professionals to embrace change in preparing for challenges of new millennium Mairin B. Brennan C&EN Washington
said Small, a section head at Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati. "If you're prepared, you can take advantage of the I he new millennium probably has new millennium." different meanings to all of us, But "change involves risk," noted but there's one inescapable con- NOBCChE President Winifred Burksclusion: The pace and demands for inno- Houck, a research chemist at Lawrence vation and technology are accelerating, Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in and our skills must change as we plan" California. Drawing on NOBCChE histoto keep abreast. ry, Burks-Houck reminded her audience Thus Leonard E. Small, chairman of that "risk was involved" when the orgathe executive committee of the National nization was founded by a handful of Organization for the Professional Ad- black chemists in 1972. At first, the meetvancement of Black Chemists & Chemi- ings were sparsely attended, but now cal Engineers (NOBCChE), addressed the NOBCChE's membership has grown to opening session of the organization's more than 4,000. 25th annual conference, held last month The risk-taking innovations that proin Dallas. pelled U.S. technological advances in the The theme of the conference—"Pro- 20th century were chronicled by Mary L. viding the Tools for the Transition to the Good, a managing member of Venture New Millennium"—was played out in Capital Investors, Little Rock, and a former the eclectic menu of symposia, work- undersecretary of technology for the Deshops, forums, technical presentations, partment of Commerce. Good was the and an awards banquet that has become guest speaker at NOBCChE's Distina staple of NOBCChE's annual gathering. guished Scientists Series, which was sponAmong topics addressed at the confer- sored by the American Chemical Society. ence's forums were advances in U.S. In time-lapse fashion, she described the technology in the 20th century, environ- breakthrough technologies that spanned mental justice, and the impact of chang- nearly a century of change. es in affirmative action laws. On her list were the Wright brothers' "Change simply means opportunity," flying machine, aircraft bombers that
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Burks-Houck: change involves risks
28 MAY 11, 1998 C&EN
Good: career paths facing change
gave the U.S. a jump-start when it entered World War II, Henry Ford's automobile industry and the industrial revolution it spawned, the television industry, the polio vaccine, and medical imaging. Daring innovations and the leadership they involved "have become America's legacy of global leadership," she noted. "America moved into the information age with an astonishing list of 'firsts,' " Good said—the first general-purpose electronic computer, vacuum-tube machine, transistor, semiconductor, and microprocessor, followed by the Internet, the World Wide Web, and the teraflops computer with its capacity to perform a trillion calculations per second. "I can't envision that" performance, she said. Technology is shaping the world at a speed only imaginable a few decades ago, and the change it has wrought "has greatly unsettled the American people in many ways," Good said. The idea of what a career path means has forever been changed, and that has "unsettled many scientists and technical professionals," she noted. Consequently, "many of our colleagues have not encouraged their children to follow in their footsteps into science or engineering careers. I think that is one of the most difficult issues." The fact of the matter is that "no career path is going to ever be again what it was in the 1970s," she said. On hand to provide students with plenty of advice on how they can manage their careers and converge on the path of emerging technologies were a number of veteran chemists and chemical engineers. Among them were Pamela B. Jackson, a marketing vice president at Lucent Technologies, Mesquite, Texas; Frank Douglas, head of drug innovation and approval at Hoechst Marion Roussel, Frankfurt, Germany; Samuel P. Massie,
Jackson: look to reinventing a career
Small: pace and demands for innovation increasing
Chemists reroute careers for personal satisfaction The career path of the future is predicted to take several turns in an individual's lifetime. Some chemists are embracing the notion, rerouting their careers for personal satisfaction and the contributions they can make to society. Take Karen Speights-Diggs, for example. She's a forensic scientist with a master's degree in business administration; a 10-year veteran of the Maryland State Police Crime Laboratory, Pikesville, Md.; and is back in school studying for a doctorate in science education at Morgan State University, Baltimore. At the recent annual NOBCChE conference in Dallas, she told C&EN that her goal is to establish a program in forensic science at the school. "To the best of my knowledge, there is no historically black college that has a forensic science department, and I decided it would be my responsibility to start up the process." Morgan State, a historically black school, is enthusiastic about her plans. "I have been discussing my vision of how the program should be set up, and they are happy with it," she said. Media coverage of testimony in criminal cases has made forensic science pretty much a household word, Speights-Diggs said. That has helped give her an entrée into educating schoolchildren about careers in the field. "I do a lot of community outreach," she said.
emeritus professor of chemistry at the U.S. Navel Academy, Annapolis, Md.; and Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). By personalizing their presentations, these speakers offered tangible evidence of how to achieve success.
Samuel Massie with his wife, Gloria.
Christy: unique teaching opportunity
Speights-Diggs: giving back to society
Also attending the NOBCChE conference was Reginald Christy, who left a sixyear career as an environmental engineer when the opportunity to teach chemistry at Charles H. Milby High School in Houston opened up three years ago. Christy says he finds teaching rewarding because he's an extrovert Milby is a magnet school for science, Christy told C&EN, but it also offers a vocational training program in analytical chemistry that includes a cooperative component
Students who opt for this program take an analytical chemistry lab course in their junior year. The following summer they work full-time in a chemical company or commercial laboratory, and then half a day throughout their senior school year. "We have about 21 seniors doing that now," he said. The chemical companies encourage the students to go to college, and most do, said Christy. Some continue to work part-time to help with college expenses.
"I'll be the first to admit that change is unsettling and frightening at times," said keynote speaker Jackson. "The best way that I have found to deal with it is to take a deep breath and accept the fact that I will have to reinvent myself every couple of years to operate successfully in this changing world. That may sound simple, but for me it has involved lots of introspection, professional development, continuous reeducation, and . . . the support of my family." One of the most important role models in her life, she said, was a female chemist who ran an analysis lab in her hometown of Johnstown, Pa. The chemist had a family and was allowed to work part-time at the lab because she managed it so efficiently. "I worked there as a teenager," said Jackson. "Early in life I knew I wanted to have . . . not just a career, but a family, a personal life,
Biochemist Linda C. Meade-Tollin, a research assistant professor at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, received the Henry A. Hill Award—sponsored by ACS's Northeastern Section—for technical contributions to science by an outstanding minority selected by NOBCChE.
MAY 11, 1998 C&EN 29
science/technology At NOBCChE conference, science is all in the family Last month in Dallas, the 25th annual NOBCChE conference that drew 575 attendees was a meeting place for family members in science. Among them were Theodore R. Williams, a professor of chemistry at the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, and his daughter Alison, an associate research professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. At the conference, Alison received the Lloyd N. Ferguson Young Scientist Award, which honors "contributions and achievements in theirfieldof study." Also in attendance were Bobby L. Wilson, chairman of the chemistry depart-
The Mitchell brothers (clockwise from top left): Earl, Tyrone, Gerald, and Syrene.
and a strong relationship with God." She believed a career like the female chemist's might offer such an opportunity. Planning to become an analytical chemist, Jackson entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology "on an academic scholarship supplemented with lots and lots of loans." Soon she discovered it would take eight years to get a Ph.D. degree in chemistry, whereas a master's degree in chemical engineering would allow her to have a research career and earn a salary comparable to that of a Ph.D. "As a 17-year-old with all those loans, I did the math and said, 'chemical engineering, here I come.' " It turned out to be a great decision, she said, because the market for chemical engineers was better than for chemists when she graduated. Jackson knew she wanted to reinvent 30 MAY 11, 1998 C&EN
ment at Texas Southern University, Houston, and daughter Malinda. Malinda, a chemistry major, will be in her father's chemistry class next year. The conference brought together for the first time since 1968 four brothers—three of them scientists and one a mathematician. They are Earl D. Mitchell Jr., a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater; Tyrone D. Mitchell Sr., manager of technology outsourcing, Corning Inc., Corning, N.Y.; Gerald D. Mitchell, a research chemist at the National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Md.; and Syrene D. Mitchell, an evaluator at the U.S. General Accounting Office in Dallas. Their father calls them "bragging material," but "he's always been proud," said Tyrone, the spokesman for the group. All attended segregated grade Theodore and Alison Williams (top) and schools in New Orleans, then Malinda and Bobby Wilson (bottom). historically black universities. Their father urged them to take edu- Michigan State where he got a master's cation courses in college, Tyrone said, degree in organic chemistry and a Ph.D. "because the only jobs that would be degree in biochemistry, subsequently open to them would be in teaching or joining the department of biochemistry at Oklahoma State. the post office." After Earl went to Michigan, their faBut when Earl, the oldest, graduated from college, the chemistry department ther's advice to take education courses at Michigan State University, East Lan- fell on deaf ears. Both Tyrone and Gersing, "was actively recruiting from his- ald earned Ph.D. degrees in chemistry torically black colleges and universi- and Syrene got a master's degree in ties," Earl said. He ended up going to math. her career when she took a position (to help balance career and family) that put her "on the factory floor" where the products she had developed were being packaged for shipping. "The business applications of my years of research finally came to light," she said. "I liked it." To develop business skills, she earned a master's degree in business administration while working full-time. That was six years ago—when her third child was nine months old. The degree "helped me increase my confidence as an AfricanAmerican businesswoman," she said. Now she manages a staff of 150 in marketing and product management. And she's involved in the start-up of Lucent's operations in China, India, and Brazil, spending "a lot of time in China." Jackson urged students to keep abreast of business software. "Technology saves
time," she said. "Developing strong technology skills regardless of your age . . . is one of the easiest and most essential steps you can take to ensure success." Hoechst Marion Roussel's Douglas echoed Jackson's stress on success in his address at the awards banquet. "We can't help but succeed," he said. "There's too much energy in this room not to succeed." Douglas, who has both a Ph.D. degree in chemistry and an M.D. degree, urged young professionals not to be so eager to move forward that they take on assignments they're not ready for. Earlier in his career, he explained, he was approached by Ciba-Geigy to simultaneously head one of its divisions and start up another. He offered to take on either project, but not both. That meant he joined the company with a lower salary and less presti-
same. He spoke of the success spawned by the Meyerhoff program at UMBC, which was created in 1988 with a $522,000 grant from Baltimore philanthropists Robert and Jane Meyerhoff to increase the number of blacks pursuing Ph.D.s in the sciences. While maintaining its original mission, the Meyerhoff program began to admit students of other races in 1996 (C&EN, April 1, 1996, page 32). Science education "is an American issue," said Freeman. "If it were not for my faculty, most of whom are white, I couldn't have made" the program so successful. They have taken ownership of it, he said. At an ACS-sponsored symposium on the impact of environmental legislation on black communities, chemistry professor Robert L. Ford, vice chancellor for the Office of Research & Strategic Initiatives at Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, challenged his colleagues in historically black colleges and universities and in professional organizations such as NOBCChE and ACS to help in the revitalization of urban areas designated as brownfields. Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or underused industrial or commercial facilities that developers shy away from because of perceived clean-up liability. For example, a brownfield site might have an abandoned gasoline station or manufacturing facility that lacked clean-up evidence, Ford explained. The Environmental Protection Agency has a program that can offer liability protection to developers, Ford noted, and the Brownfields National Partnership, a collection of several federal agencies and other groups, has "a concentration of federal reserves" it can allocate toward brownfields restoration, he said. The brownfields initiative is directly linked to environmental justice, he suggested, because communities in Winners of the senior high school division science fair brownfield sites are, in generwere (from left) Monique Guyinn and Simmona Woodson al, predominantly black, Hisof Arena! Technical High School, Indianapolis, and panic, and/or poor. He urged Zakiya Lockhart of North Central High School, his colleagues to work with Indianapolis. They placed third, second, and first, respectively. brownfield communities and gious title, he said. Within six months, he had assembled the team for the new project; within 14 months, he headed both projects and his title became executive director, he noted. Drawing on other personal experiences, he illustrated the rewards of focusing on the issue at hand, assuming the best of people, leading by example, and mixing courage with compassion. "In difficult times," he suggested, "passionately commit to doing something without being concerned about the result." Massie stressed the need to instill in students the importance of education. "We can't afford not to have Nobel Prize winners in the sciences," he said. "There's only one place for [our students] to be, and that's at the top." Encourage them, he continued. Let them know "they are somebody." He urged black professionals "to participate in the things that affect" their careers. "Make sure folks know you are there. I went to many meetings where I was the only [black person] there. When I went to my first ACS meeting, there were only two black men there." A different world cannot be built by indifferent people, he said. "A mule cannot kick when he's pulling and he cannot pull when he's kicking. So when you find folks doing a lot of kicking, they're not doing any pulling." Hrabowski urged students to "have a vision" of their future. "It's so easy to fall by the wayside," he said. "Think about who you will be 20 years from now. "My vision is that when we think of African-American students we think of brilliance." Black students often underestimate their potential, he suggested, and it's not unusual for their professors to do the
Kijana Rivers, a seventh-grade student at Los Angeles' 32nd St visual and performing arts magnet school, holds a lightbulb he turned on using a battery and aluminum foil at a teacher workshop conducted by Saundra McGuire (inset), acting director of the Learning Skills Center at Cornell University Kijana tagged along with his father, Sylvester, who recorded the conference on audiotape, to learn more about what chemists do.
empower them to find ways to attract commercial enterprise to their community to boost its economy and create jobs. "For communities to be involved, there has to be training and education," Ford said. "That's one of the greatest roles that institutions like mine can play." As part of a brownfields initiative that he has undertaken in partnership with a New Jersey minority businessman, Ford plans to develop an Internet database that will document all brownfield properties whose contaminating materials have been characterized. To help fund their project, the two partners have submitted an unsolicited grant proposal to EPA. The city of New Orleans has characterized 19 brownfield sites and identified five as suitable for cost-effective commercial development, noted Ford. But out-ofstate developers who might be interested in the properties "have no way of knowing about them," he noted. Nationwide, roughly 600,000 brownfield sites have been identified, he said: "That's a pretty serious spot of real estate that's going unattended." If Ford's project is funded, Southern MAY 11, 1998 C&EN 31
science/technology
Evans: affirmative action isn't over
University students in law, business, sci ence, and computer science may expect to be assuming roles in the database project. "The university will profit because the students will get some training and they'll get paid," said Ford. "They won't make profits like [the businessman], but, in the end, if the community is a better place . . . it's a win-win situation." At a forum on the impact of changes on affirmative action, speakers from academia, business, and government de scribed how California's Proposition 209 and the fallout it has engendered has put affirmative action nationwide on a dark road toward an uncertain future. Propo sition 209 is the legislation enacted by the state in 1996 that prohibits preferen tial treatment in state and other public entities on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin. All agreed that the need for affirma tive action still exists. "But if it's going to be eliminated, then we better start think ing very quickly about designing new tools that are going to get our young peo ple into the university and out," said James E. Evans, a former president of NOBCChE who retired from LLNL and now is founder and president of Work place Concepts, Danville, Calif. Schools in the University of California system in general are admitting fewer mi norities, noted Shirley McDavid, manager of recruiting and diversity for engineer ing at LLNL. At UC Berkeley, for exam ple, combined admissions for underrepresented minorities in 1998 were down 55% from the year before, she noted, with a substantial decline in black stu dents. In 1998, she said, 191 black stu 32 MAY 11, 1998C&EN
dents were admitted there, compared versity. "You've got to walk the walk be fore challenging others to do it. You've with 562 in 1997. Many minority students from Califor got to have credibility. On my staff I have nia are choosing to go to schools in oth two women, two blacks, a Scotsman, a er states, McDavid pointed out, which of Dutchman, and three [American] white ten causes hardship in their families. Just males. That's not by accident." last month, a student who had received a The issue of affirmative action "isn't fellowship from LLNL to attend graduate over yet, even though California says it school in California decided not to ac might be," said Evans. "No one has got cept it, McDavid said. After visiting some up in front of the mike to sing." schools, the student said, Ί really don't The conference's technical sessions in need the hassle.' " Already accepted at a cluded presentations in physical chemis prestigious East Coast school, she chose try, polymer and materials science, chemi to go there instead. cal engineering, analytical chemistry, bio Minority students who were on cam chemistry and biotechnology, and an pus before Proposition 209 was enacted undergraduate poster session. Also in the also are being affected, McDavid said. program were science fairs for junior- and "They feel they have been put in a posi senior-division high school students. tion of having to continue to defend At the awards banquet, NOBCChE cotheir existence." Moreover, employees founder William A. GuUlory, president and hired under the banner of affirmative ac founder of Innovations Consulting, Salt tion "feel less safe" and are less willing to Lake City, received the NOBCChE Percy speak out. L. Julian Award in Pure & Applied Research Offering a corporate viewpoint, John in Science & Engineering—the organiza R. Jenkins, vice president of consumer im tion's highest award for contributions in aging manufacturing at Polaroid Corp., the chemical sciences and technology. Waltham, Mass., said minorities "who fi And more than $120,000 was awarded in nally made it" have the responsibility for scholarships to outstanding undergraduate ensuring that their organization reflects di and graduate students.^
Structure Sheds Light On Evolution Of Biocatalysis
T
he structure of a protein that helps a catalytic RNA function bet ter may offer some intriguing clues as to how proteins evolved into the principal catalysts of biochemical reactions. The structure is that of the protein component of bacterial ribonuclease P, one of the simplest and best studied biomolecules in which RNA functions as a catalyst. The structure was determined by chemistry professor and X-ray crystallographer David W. Christianson and gradu ate student Travis Stams at the University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with as sociate professor of biochemistry Carol A. Fierke and postdoctoral fellow S. Niranjanakumari of Duke University Med ical Center, Durham, N.C. [Science, 280, 752 (1998)]. In bacteria, ribonuclease Ρ cleaves an RNA strand to produce a smaller seg ment that, after further processing, be comes a transfer RNA molecule. It con tains a large (roughly 125,000 daltons)
RNA component and a much smaller (14,000 daltons) protein portion. In 1983, biologist Sidney Altman at Yale University showed that under certain conditions, the RNA portion alone can catalyze this cleavage reaction. Under physiological conditions, however, both parts are needed for catalytic activity, raising the question of what role the pro tein plays in this molecule. Altman calls Christianson and Fierke's work an important step, but still a pre liminary one, to understanding how the protein and RNA parts of ribonuclease Ρ interact. "Exactly what parts of the cata lytic RNA the protein binds to and how it affects both the rate and specificity of the reaction remain to be shown," he says. "But this is a good first step." Although the structure of the much larger RNA component of the molecule has not been determined yet, indirect modeling methods give some idea of its structure, says David R. Engelke, profes sor of biological chemistry at the Univer-
