On March 1 and 2, the University of California, Santa Barbara will host the 2008 UC LEADS (University of California Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees) Research Symposium, a prestigious annual event that showcases the academic research of advanced undergraduate researchers from across the University of California system. The keynote speakers are Camelia Owens, National Institutes of Health Science and Technology Policy Fellow, and Stephen Mayo, professor of biology and chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

"I'm very excited to be able to present my research in public," said UCSB student and UC LEADS participant Christian Cortes. "We have all worked so hard on our projects over the last year; it will be nice to share our research findings with other UC students and faculty."

Monique Limón, director of the UC LEADS program at UCSB, is also excited about the chance for students to network with UC professors in their respective fields. "UC LEADS is a fantastic program for the students, and the annual symposium is a wonderful event. In addition to the workshops that will help scholars prepare for graduate school and professional careers, I'm especially excited about our keynote speakers, who can provide students with an example of people of color at the top of their fields in science, technology, engineering and mathematics."

Keynote speaker Owens is a Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research. After receiving a doctorate at the University of Delaware in chemical engineering, Owens held several prestigious positions including Visiting Scholar in the Doyle Group for Chemical Engineering at UCSB and a U.S. Congressional Science and Engineering research fellowship. Her current research focuses on models of engineering education as it pertains to recruitment and retention of high school and middle school children.

Mayo, a member of the Caltech faculty since 1992, is the head of the Mayo Lab for research in biology and chemistry, and is a former Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2004, Mayo was elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his pioneering contributions in the field of protein design. Mayo has worked for the last several years on a system for designing, building and testing proteins with novel biochemical properties.

The UC LEADS program provides educational and research opportunities for underrepresented students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Students accepted into the program work with a UC faculty mentor to develop original and meaningful scientific research. Sponsored by the Koret Foundation, the conference provides undergraduates from all over California opportunities to showcase their projects. In addition to attending career and graduate school workshops, more than 100 students will present the results of their research to their colleagues, professors and other leaders in the UC academic and scientific community.

For more information on the UC LEADS program: www.ucop.edu/ucleads.