Gateway to Diversity in the Scientific and Technological Workforce

摘要

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Human Resource Development(HRD), within the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, has primary responsibility for broadening participation of minority groups underrepresented in science, engineering, and mathematics (SEM). The NSF minority programs reflect the Foundation's growing commitment to develop the resources of the scientific and technological community as a whole and to ensure an adequately trained research and development workforce in the next decade. The Education and Human Resources Directorate has five major long-range goals: to help ensure that a high-quality school education in science is available to every child in the United States and is of sufficient quality to enable those who are interested and talented to pursue technical careers at all levels; to help ensure that the educational pipelines carrying students to careers in science, mathematics, and engineering yield enough well-educated individuals to meet the needs of the U.S. technical workforce; to help ensure that those who select science and engineering careers have available the best possible professional education in their discipline; to help ensure that opportunities are available at the college level for interested nonspecialists to broaden their scientific backgrounds; and to support informal science education programs and to maintain public interest in, and awareness of, scientific and technological developments. The Division of Human Resource Development is one of the six divisions of the Education and Human Resources Directorate. HRD activities reflect NSF's commitment to developing the resources of the scientific and technical community as a whole. Objectives of the programs profiled in this publication are as follows: to increase opportunities for participation in the nation's scientific and technical enterprise for investigators who are monorities; young persons who are minorities; and faculty from predominantly undergraduate colleges and universities; to strengthen the capabilities of institutions that have significant minority enrollments; and to foster comprehensive approaches and build effective coalitions that address the development of scientific and engineering talent, drawing from underrepresented minority groups on a nationwide basis. NSF's goals are to increase the number of minorities underrepresented in NSF-supported fields receiving B.S. degrees to more than 50,000 annually by the year 2000 and to increase the minority Ph.D. attainment to more than 2,000 annually by the same year. Minorities that are underrepresented in science and engineering are: Black's, Hispanics, American Indians, Native Alaskans, and Native Pacific Islanders (Micronesian and Polynesian). Minority programs at individual universities throughout the country are also described.