May 03, 2001

NASA, Professional Groups Will Meet In Bowling Green To Discuss Minority Involvement In Educational Mission

Bowling Green, Ky. - A meeting next week in Bowling Green could serve as the launch pad for increased minority participation in NASA's space and educational missions.

In the first meeting of its kind, representatives from NASA's Office of Space Science and nine professional organizations will meet May 9-10 at the University Plaza Hotel and Convention Center.

"Minority professional organizations are an untapped source of information, energy and personnel," said Dr. Charles McGruder, head of Western Kentucky University's Department of Physics and Astronomy and president of the National Society of Black Physicists.

The meeting is significant for the organizations, for NASA and for the future, Dr. McGruder said. "If this meeting leads to something big, it will become a part of the history," he said.

The meeting's main purpose is to discuss how minority professional organizations can play a role in NASA-sponsored educational activities, Dr. McGruder said. The Office of Space Science is responsible for all NASA space missions.

Each space mission must spend about 2 percent of its budget on educational activities, he said. For example, a $300 million mission would have to allocate $6 million for education.
As president of the National Society of Black Physicists, Dr. McGruder is involved in one example of cooperation between NASA and minority organizations - the educational activities of Eclipse 2001, a total solar eclipse that will occur June 21 over southern Africa.

Eclipse 2001 "is a model for what other minority organizations can do," Dr. McGruder said.

Dr. McGruder is a member of the national committee that is organizing a live transmission of the eclipse from Africa and the International Space Station to museums in the United States and worldwide.

The National Society of Black Physicists will have one of its members at each museum viewing location to describe the eclipse and to serve as role models, Dr. McGruder said. The eclipse will occur about 8:09 a.m. CDT. (For more on the group's role in Eclipse 2001, visit http://museumeclipse.org/nsbp)

"Because this eclipse can only be seen in southern Africa, the motherland of African Americans, a special effort will be made to have African Americans attend the live event in museums," he said.

During the Bowling Green meeting, each organization will make a presentation describing its work, NASA and affiliated agencies will describe upcoming missions and all the groups will discuss how they can work together.

Other professional groups attending are: National Society of Hispanic Physicists, Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Space, American Indian Science and Engineering Society, National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists, National Association of Mathematicians Council for African American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences, National Society for Black Geologists and Geophysicists, National Institute of Health Black Scientists Association, and a representative from a group of black computer scientists.

Other agencies attending include Ohio Aerospace Institute, DePaul University, Space Science Institute, Lesley University, Lunar Planetary Institute, Goddard Space Flight Center, Space Telescope Science Institute and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

For more information, contact Dr. Charles McGruder at (270) 745-4357. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.