SET for life
SET-Routes works to increase female representation in Science, Engineering and Technology, with funding from the European Union. CERN is one of three European organisations organizing the project.
Imagine a programme that puts female science, engineering and technology (SET) professionals into classrooms and university lecture halls as positive role models for the next generation of physicists -- of both genders. It's called SET-Routes, and CERN is one of three institutions funded by the European Union to make this programme a reality.
'There's nothing like a real scientist to show a budding female physics student that science is for women, too,' says Rolf Landua, Head of Education at CERN. That's why CERN is using its funding for a series of 'ambassador visits,' recruiting female SET professionals at various stages of their careers to speak to a handful of secondary schools in their home countries about what it's like to be a scientist, engineer, or technician. Thirteen countries EU have been selected for ambassador visits due to their particularly low percentages of women in the field. 'In German-speaking countries it is especially bad,' says Landua. According to a Eurostat Education statistics study in 2003, females account for only 29.9 per cent of German PhD graduates in science, mathematics and computing, and Austria is not far behind. (See at the bottom for a complete list of the selected countries.)
Other provisions of the programme include an international conference and a series of ambassador visits to universities, organized, respectively, by the other two recipients of SET-Routes funding: the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
Ambassadors will have the opportunity to attend the conference, 'The Way Forward,' in Heidelberg between 9 and 11 May, where they will be coached on how to prepare talks and field questions that their young audience members might have. Anyone interested in being an ambassador should contact Rolf Landua at Rolf.Landua@cern.ch.
SET-Routes quick list
Objectives:
Organizations involved:
Funding:
SET-Routes Programmes:
Selected countries for ambassador visits to secondary schools:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovak Republic, Switzerland.
For more information go to:
