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64 CAREER ADVICE FOR LIFE SCIENTISTS

Increasing Representation of

People of Color in Science

Lydia Villa-Komaroff

Northwestern University

I

n the influential 1945 report Science – the Endless

Frontier, Vannevar Bush observed, “there are talent-

ed individuals in every segment of the population,

but with few exceptions, those without the means of

buying higher education go without it. Here is a

tremendous waste of the greatest resource of a nation –

the intelligence of its citizens.” Since that report, over

half a century ago, there have been substantial efforts

to increase the participation of both women and

minorities in the scientific endeavor. In at least some

fields, including cell biology, substantial progress has

been made with respect to the participation of women,

but the participation of minority individuals continues

to be disappointingly low.

To increase the number of underrepresented minori-

ties in science, there are three areas that must be

addressed: getting children through high school with

the expectation of going to college, maintaining interest

in science throughout college, and increasing the num-

ber of students who enter graduate programs in science.

In an attempt to recruit and retain minority individ-

uals in scientific fields, a large number of programs

aimed at undergraduates have been implemented.

These programs are designed to retain interested

undergraduates in science and recruit them into grad-

uate programs. As a whole, these programs can be con-

sidered a modest success, since the number of minori-

ty individuals obtaining degrees in science, math and

It may be that the only way to make a

substantial difference in the number of

minority individuals in science is to

intervene in early childhood.