November 28, 2008
Córdova keynote for NIH address on women in science
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -
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Córdova, an astrophysicist, drew on her own experiences as well as Newtons' Laws:
"Newton’s First Law states that an object — which includes a woman in this case — in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. That is what happened in my life and career when external forces stopped me in my tracks several times and pointed me in a new direction of limitless possibilities.
"If Newton were alive today, he might sum up his Second Law this way: 'Stuff happens, and then you accelerate in direct proportion to the amount and direction of the stuff happening to you.'
"Were it not for Newton’s first two laws and events in my life, I might have spent my youth lying under a large sycamore tree in our front yard in California, dreaming and listening to the droning of airplanes flying overhead, instead of accelerating from a family of 12 children into the exciting world of science.
"And then there’s Newton’s Third Law: 'For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.'"
These laws of motion, she said, played out through her career as a college student, a researcher, the first woman to be the chief scientist for NASA and a university administrator.
And as she chose her career path, she said, she learned how pivotal mentors can be. She told them she had loved science as a young girl, but she was encouraged instead to look for a career considered then to be more appropriate for a woman.
"I majored in English because the mentors I did have in my life -- parents and teachers -- thought I had an aptitude for writing, and because I truly enjoyed literature and creative writing. And I still do," she said.
Mentors today, though, are needed to move women toward the sciences and engineering.
She noted that a 2004 National Science Board report says the number of U.S. citizens 18 to 24 years old receiving science degrees has fallen from third in the world three decades ago to seventeenth. According to the report, Asian countries are producing eight times as many engineers as the United States.
"Deeply disturbing in this and a major factor in the technology gap is a shortfall in the number of women choosing careers in science, engineering, math and computer science," she said.
For example, at Purdue from 2000 to 2007, overall enrollment in our computer science program — the first of its kind in the nation — dropped 51 percent," she said. "Accounting for a great part of the drop is the fact that today less than 7 percent of our undergraduates in the program are female."
Given the nationwide need, she said, everyone has a stake in encouraging women into the sciences.
"These are not feminist issues. These are not women’s issue. These are national issues that are important to everyone," she said.
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