A "global physicist wannabe" junior high school student and physics professor had an enjoyable conversation Friday afternoon. Park Hyeon-ju aged 14, a first year student at Ewha junior high school and Sin Seung-ae, a professor of physics at Ewha Woman's University could meet with each other thanks to the Women's Science and Engineering (WISE) program, which was created by some 100 female scientists involved with a university, research institute or business corporation. The program is officially launched on Saturday in order to gather their forces to breed young girls dreaming of a female scientist in the future.
Female scientists of WISE said they would raise the next Marie Curie in Korea.
In the first move, WISE will offer an individual interview on and off-line for knowledge sharing between elementary, middle, high school girl students and female scientists on the active list for the six coming months until May 2002. The interview will proceed one-on-one or through a mentoring method.
Female scientists participating in WISE currently total 100. Among them is Jeon Hwa-suk, a computer science major, the only female professor of engineering department at Seoul National University, Kim Jae-eun, professor of physics at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Choi Young-ju, professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), and Dr. Jeong Gwang-hwa of Korea Reserch Institute of Standards and Science.
So why did such a large number of female scientists become involved with WISE without pay? It started when Alan G. Macdiarmid, the 2000 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, visited the university for a lecture in May 2001. In the lecture, Macdiarmid said, "You'll have to be a model for teenagers who want to be a scientist so that more females can join the science field," finding a congenial spirit among female scientists and students in the lecture, urging "Let's do something about it!"
From that moment on, Lee Hae-suk, professor of mathematics and chief of the business in WISE stepped up efforts to be an advisor or a mentor for young female students. She appealed to the world by emailing thousands of invitations and produced a result in six months.
Choi Young-ju, professor at POSTECH said she sometimes found excellent female students losing their identity in the male-oriented world, noting that female students must keep growing in terms of their potential and dreams regardless of their gender.
WISE is recruiting female students who want to meet person to person with female scientists on the web in the order of arrival. For entry information, visit www.wise.or.kr
(Lee Gil-seong, atticus@chosun.com)
