Hahm says Caltech's approach is noteworthy because women often want jobs in which they can see the direct results of their work rather than simply focusing on theoretical research.
Shannon Lewis, 22, a member of the Caltech class of '05, said that's why she chose chemical engineering as her major. Although she loves working in the lab, she said, "It's easier to stay motivated if you see a purpose to your work."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday June 21, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 64 words Type of Material: Correction
Female engineers -- An article in Monday's California section about Caltech's all-female chemical engineering class stated that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) had spoken of writing to NASA shortly after the first moon walk in 1969 to ask how to become an astronaut. Clinton has said she wrote the letter around 1961, when President Kennedy was gearing up for the race to the moon.
Lewis said she is headed to the University of Texas at Austin to do postgraduate work in materials science and engineering, with plans to focus on semiconductor research. Such ambitions run counter to Summers' hypothesis.
Speaking at an academic conference in January, the Harvard president sparked controversy when he suggested that men were more biologically suited to pursue careers in math and science than women.
"Particularly in some attributes, that bear on engineering, there is reasonably strong evidence of taste differences between little girls and little boys that are in fact not attributable to socialization," Summers said.
Responding to critics, including women from the Harvard faculty, Summers apologized for his remarks, acknowledging that his comments sent "an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women."
Flagan said he sees no difference in ability, interest or aptitude between male and female students at Caltech. The women "tend to be every bit as competitive, as rigorous in thinking and as demanding in what they expect in teaching and the kinds of things they want to do," he said.
Students cited summer science programs, good teachers and mentors and summer jobs for encouraging their interest in science.
When the private all-girls Catholic high school Lewis attended did not offer a calculus-based physics course, the Caltech chemical engineering major took it at a nearby boys' school, showing up in her plaid-skirt uniform and knee socks.
She also worked several summers at a U.S. Army lab that developed night-vision goggles for the military. That was where she met her mentor, John Dinan, who urged her to attend Caltech, which his son attended.
A summer science program inspired graduate Michelle Giron, 21, who attended Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena. She credits science teacher Jack Blumenthal and other instructors with trying to get more girls interested in science, math and engineering careers. Blumenthal helped her get an internship at Caltech. Continuing her studies, Giron has enrolled in a doctoral program in chemical engineering at Cornell University beginning in the fall.
Others in Caltech's 2005 graduation class include Maryam Ali, Haluna Gunterman, Victoria Loewer and Joan Karen Sum Ping.
Radio commentator and writer Sandra Tsing Loh, this year's commencement speaker, said her father, a scientist and a Caltech alumnus, played a big role in her decision to pursue a degree in physics at the prestigious university. Faculty and alumni have collected 31 Nobel prizes, mostly in physics and chemistry.
Tsing Loh, 43, said her father impressed upon his children that it was the "highest honor to win the Nobel, and physics the highest of the sciences ... so please win one." Their devotion was such that the family would handicap possible Nobel Prize winners each year the way others anticipate the Academy Awards.
But Tsing Loh ultimately found her calling in graduate school at USC, where she studied liberal arts. Her disappointed father, she said, considered that the "equivalent of pole-dancing."
