CASSIE TOMLIN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Physiology junior Naghmeh Saghafi monitors the brain activity of insects in a Gould-Simpson neurobiology lab. Saghafi is enrolled in the Futurebound program, which facilitates women science majors gaining lab internships.

A presentation by the president of Harvard University had UA women confused and annoyed after he claimed biological differences in sex might be responsible for why fewer women succeed in the upper ranks of science and engineering.

Harvard president Lawrence Summers spoke at a conference Jan. 14 on women and minorities in science, questioning why so few women are on math and engineering faculties at top research universities.

Marie Reyes, assistant research scientist for the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, called Summer's assertions "ridiculous."

Reyes said to expand women's presence in the science and engineering fields to the fullest potential, there must be a broad systemic change in academia.

"It's not about innate abilities in biology," she said. "There are so many subtle barriers in the environment constricting women."

At the UA, 12 of the 131 faculty members in the College of Engineering are women. Of those, five are full professors, five are associate professors and two are assistant professors, said Tom Peterson, the College of Engineering dean.

A 2001 National Science Foundation study reported women make up about 28 percent of science and engineering doctorates employed in American university research institutes.

Peterson said he has seen recent changes in the gender makeup of upper-division faculty across the country after attending a nationwide dean of engineering meeting.

He said the engineering deans at Purdue, Michigan State, Duke and Roland are women.

"That increase is good in and of itself, but also provides role models for women who are undergraduates who can look and see it is possible for women to succeed in the academic environment and pursue those careers," Peterson said.

Peterson said it is important to recruit more women to engineering faculty at the UA in order to fully represent the demographics of the population.

"We have to do a better job of providing a welcoming environment for female faculty, which is not unlike providing a welcoming environment for male faculty," Peterson said.

Reyes is the project director of Futurebound, a joint UA and Community College program, which recruits women in science transferring to the UA from PCC to participate in a year-long research internship at the UA.

Reyes said the women in the program receive a stipend for research and take a seminar course where they are mentored and able to share research experiences with others in the program.

Reyes said it is difficult for women to succeed in fields largely dominated by white males, and the Futurebound program gives students the opportunity to gain support from other women.

Sisters Negin and Naghmeh Saghafi, both physiology juniors, enrolled in the Futurebound program and said though they have not experienced discrimination in their scholastic science careers, the program is a valuable tool in enhancing their education.

"Futurebound put me in contact with a professor who set me up with a research lab," Naghmeh Saghafi said. "Students normally wouldn't have such an easy time getting access to the resources. I learn something new every day."

Negin Saghafi said she was familiar with Summers' speech after the Futurebound class discussed it.

"After all of the things I've read in the class, I think what he said was inaccurate," Negin Saghafi said.

Reyes said although there have been great strides in increasing the number of women in undergraduate science studies, the number drops dramatically in graduate students and in the professional fields.

Reyes said undergraduate women score as highly as men in their studies, but do not pursue higher degrees. She said some women feel discouraged by the "toxic environment" created in lecture classrooms comprised mostly of white males.

A fall 2002 UA Decision and Planning Support survey reported that of all undergraduate students in the College of Science, 48 percent were women. Of all undergraduates in the College of Engineering, 19 percent were women.

Reyes, a doctoral candidate with a master's degree in zoology, physiology and applied statistics, said the presence of women in science and engineering is important to the success of advancing the fields.

"Many people believe that innovation comes from diversity," Reyes said.

"The potential for new research, development and finding new discoveries depends on variation."

Reyes said the lack women in a field like engineering has resulted in inaccuracies in research and development of products, such as airbags.

In an online statement, Summers said he was flooded with e-mails and phone calls in response to the speech, which "made vivid the very real barriers faced by women in pursuing scientific and other academic careers."

Summers said he intended his speech to express his "strong commitment to the advancement of women in science."

"I deeply regret the impact of my comments and apologize for not having weighed them more carefully," Summers said. "I was wrong to have spoken in a way that has resulted in an unintended signal of discouragement of talented girls and women."

Summers said he still believes progress in attracting women to the front ranks of science is "frustratingly uneven and slow" and he is committed to advancing diversity in the academic setting.