“Science is a social activity,” says Barbara J. Grosz, dean of the Radcliffe Institute and former dean of science. “A scientist must not only do good science, but also be able to communicate about science.” To encourage these skills among budding young scientists, the science program at Radcliffe has created a series of private events that bring undergraduates and graduate students together with visiting scientists and with one another.

Linked to the Institute’s public lectures, the series began with a few receptions, at which students in the sciences—including members of the undergraduate group Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe (WISHR) and, later, Harvard Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (HGWISE)—were invited to interact with featured speakers. Students found it intimidating, however, to approach speakers in this setting, and student feedback led to smaller lunch gatherings, during which conversation flowed more naturally and interactions between students and senior scientists increased.

Now, the science program manages a highly successful series of lunches, twice-yearly teas, and poster sessions—where students present their current research—during science symposia.

Becki Smith, science program administrator at the Radcliffe Institute, stresses the positive effect that discussing career choices with and asking advice from successful scientists has on students, particularly women and minorities.

Phoebe Cohen, who is completing her doctoral degree in paleontology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, attended a lunch with speaker Lisa Tauxe, a professor of geophysics and the director of the earth sciences major at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. “It’s not often that you can ask a professor you’ve just met about juggling her personal life with her career,” Cohen says. “In a field with few women in top positions, role models are few and far between. The Radcliffe program brings these people right to you.”

At the teas, where undergraduate and graduate students talk with Radcliffe science fellows, students are charged with making sure no two fellows are caught talking with each other.

“We have socially engineered the events so that students feel welcome and able to approach senior scientists,” Grosz says. “They’re having the kind of conversations that you need to have to succeed in science—talking about science and talking about life.”

Photo by Martha Stewart