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NEWS RELEASE

02-15-01

Contacts:
Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Library, (515) 294-6648
Steve Sullivan, News Service, (515) 294-3720

IOWA STATE LIBRARY SEEKS PERSONAL HISTORIES OF WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY

AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State University Library is on the trail of women who have had careers in chemistry.

The effort is part of an oral history project of the library's Archives of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE). WISE has received a $25,000 grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation for the project, which will focus on women who have devoted their careers to the study of chemistry in the post World War II era.

The oral history project will document the post WWII careers and experiences of women in chemistry and chemical engineering to illustrate the critical role of women in science, said Tanya Zanish-Belcher, archives curator. The Archives of Women in Science and Engineering will also partner with National Public Radio station WOI to create a broadcast series featuring segments of the oral histories. As part of this project, the Archives will provide K-12 and professional outreach in collaboration with national chemistry organizations and national academic programs for women.

The Iowa State University Library created the Archives in 1994 to document the history of women in science and engineering. The Archives collects in all fields of engineering and in the physical, earth, life, and computational sciences.

The Archives of WISE ( http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/wise/wise.html) is interested in the personal papers and oral histories of individual women, as well as the records of womens organizations in engineering and the sciences. It seeks not only the papers of the most notable women whose names are already in the history books, but also those of women who have labored in the background, sometimes with little or no recognition, said Zanish-Belcher.

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