Career Day for Young Women Features Science at Light Sources
April 7, 2012
About 45 female students from the Brentwood Freshman Center, Bay Shore High School, and Islip High School visited Brookhaven Lab on March 14 to learn first-hand about careers in science from female researchers during the Brookhaven Women in Science (BWIS) High School Career Day. Funded by Brookhaven Science Associates and members’ dues and contributions, BWIS promotes the advancement of women in science.
The Photon Sciences Directorate’s Cecilia Sanchez-Hanke (second from left) discusses her research with students attending the Brookhaven Women in Science Career Day. Sanchez-Hanke is the group leader of the Soft X-ray Scattering Beamline, one of the initial beamlines to operate at the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a $912-million facility now under construction at the Lab.
The students first were treated to breakfast and visited career and education tables set up by: BWIS, Brookhaven’s Office of Educational Programs, Brookhaven’s Media and Communications Office, Brookhaven’s Collider-Accelerator Department, Stony Brook University’s Women In Science & Engineering program, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The students then observed a panel discussion among three female Brookhaven scientists – Michiko Minty of the Collider-Accelerator Department, Cecilia Sanchez-Hanke of the Photon Sciences Directorate, and Suzanne Golisz of the Chemistry Department – about their research and their experiences in science.
After touring the Collider-Accelerator Department and National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), where researchers use infrared light, ultraviolet light and x-rays to probe materials as varied as computer chips and viruses, the students met NSLS scientist Lisa Miller, who talked about her basic research on Alzheimer’s disease using synchrotron light to study plaques in the brain.
To round out their tour, the students enjoyed hands-on exhibits at the Science Learning Center, where more than 20,000 elementary school students visit each year to learn about basic scientific principles.
2012-3013 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
