Yesterday was the celebration of World AIDS's Day. I attended a wonderful and informative symposium at a local college and university. I was reminded about some facts that I already knew about the disease as well as learned some knew facts. I can tell you that we've come a long way since the disease was first discovered in 1981. One of the interesting things about this symposium is that it was an interdisciplinary symposium about the disease. It had a mixed of biomedical researchers, scientists, medical doctors, epidemiologists, behavioral scientists and film makers giving presentations about the detection, prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
This symposium made me think of the future of science and engineering. Once upon a time, scientists and engineers were isolated in their research lab or plant and only talked to other scientist, their funders and occasionally when things in the lab went well a patent attorney. However, in the information age, scientist and engineers can no longer live in the isolation of their lab or plant. Not only do they have to talk to other scientists or engineers that may not be in their discipline; they are going to have to interact and collaborate with non scientist in order to have a successful career. In this symposium, I recognize that it is the scientists and engineers that lead the way in innovation. However, especially in the disease research and product development scientist and non scientist have to work together to improve our society and to prevent and treat diseases. As far as HIV/AIDS is concerned all the breakthrough in the lab concerning prevention, detection and treatment would have not gone beyond the lab if it wasn't for public health professionals, filmmakers, journalist, politicians and businessmen didn't get involved in getting the word out to the general public. I have a friend who works for corporation that produces consumers good and her job is to serve as an intermediate between research and development and marketing. Her company has the foresight to know that they can't produce quality good unless these two sides of the business collaborate.
So as we create the future STEM workforce, we must let them know that the workforce isn't just a collaboration between other scientists and engineers; but a collaboration between professional of all disciplines. So as they chart their path to pursue a STEM career, be sure to keep people in their network that aren't STEM professional. For that person may be the key to their ability to impact the world.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
World AIDS Day on Tuesday December 1st
This Tuesday, December 1st is World AIDS Day (for more information visit the official website http://www.worldaidsday.org). I reflect upon first hearing about this disease when I was a child and when the thought that it was just a disease that just affected homosexual males. But when I think about the progression that science and engineering has had on the detection, prevention and treatment of this disease, I am amazed what great work biomedical researchers have made with this disease.
As far and detection and treatment, science has taught us that this disease has the potential to affect us all and is transmitted through several ways and how we can protect ourselves from getting the disease. I also remember when you first had to test for this disease only by blood and it took several days to get the test results. Now you can get tested for this disease with a rapid test from a mouth swab. We have truly come a long way.
Although, we have not yet to find a cure, we have made great strides in the treatment of this disease. I remember when getting HIV was a death sentence because there was no way to prevent it from progressing to full blown AIDS. Once you got full blown AIDS you were dead within a few years. However, breakthroughs in biomedical and pharmaceutical research have created drugs that not only prevent individual with HIV from getting full blown AIDS, but both those individuals with HIV and AIDS are living long healthy lives. Although Magic Johnson is a great example of this, I am sure that if you go to the world aids day website, you can find examples of everyday people who are living long lives with these disease.
But we have more research to conduct to improve treatment and find cures for this disease and other diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Cancer, Stroke, etc. I want to ensure that we have a future pipeline for biomedical research, so use this day to encourage K-12 and undergraduates to pursue careers in these fields. Let them know what a difference that science makes in our everyday lives because I am sure that even if no one in your family or network has been affected by this disease; they have been affected by another disease.
As far and detection and treatment, science has taught us that this disease has the potential to affect us all and is transmitted through several ways and how we can protect ourselves from getting the disease. I also remember when you first had to test for this disease only by blood and it took several days to get the test results. Now you can get tested for this disease with a rapid test from a mouth swab. We have truly come a long way.
Although, we have not yet to find a cure, we have made great strides in the treatment of this disease. I remember when getting HIV was a death sentence because there was no way to prevent it from progressing to full blown AIDS. Once you got full blown AIDS you were dead within a few years. However, breakthroughs in biomedical and pharmaceutical research have created drugs that not only prevent individual with HIV from getting full blown AIDS, but both those individuals with HIV and AIDS are living long healthy lives. Although Magic Johnson is a great example of this, I am sure that if you go to the world aids day website, you can find examples of everyday people who are living long lives with these disease.
But we have more research to conduct to improve treatment and find cures for this disease and other diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Cancer, Stroke, etc. I want to ensure that we have a future pipeline for biomedical research, so use this day to encourage K-12 and undergraduates to pursue careers in these fields. Let them know what a difference that science makes in our everyday lives because I am sure that even if no one in your family or network has been affected by this disease; they have been affected by another disease.
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- Science, Engineering and Mathematics Link, Inc. (SEM Link), a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, was founded in 2004 on the premise that exposure to members of the science, engineering and mathematics (SEM) communities is critical to student development in math and science. Our mission is to promote student achievement and career exploration in math and science while increasing student exposure to the science, engineering and mathematics communities and enhancing resources that are available at local schools and community organizations. Our two core programs, Math and Science Career Academy and Experimental Design Program, provide students with an opportunity to develop their math and science skills by enhancing the classroom learning experience and teaching them skills that are transferable to other areas of life. We recruit students and professionals for our programs that have backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.