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DSU Faculty, Students Participate in Women in Science Conference

Faculty and students from Dakota State University will be participating in the South Dakota Discovery Center’s Women in Science Conference, Tuesday, April 29 in Pierre.  The conference features career sessions led by professionals in science and technology fields.  Career fields covered at the 2008 conference will include dentistry, environmental engineering, information technology, nutrition, rehabilitation services, computer technology, geographic information systems, banking, physics and psychology.

Dakota State professor Dr. Barbara Szczerbinska will be presenting “Careers in Physics and the Homestake Mine.”  Dr. Szczerbinska is an assistant professor in the DSU College of Arts and Sciences. Pam Rowland, instructor in the College of Business and Information Systems, will be presenting “Careers in Computing.”  DSU doctoral student Ashley Podhradsky will also do a presentation on technology. 

The conference will feature Dawn Ottman as the keynote speaker. Ottman is founder and CEO of CanDew Scientific, a company that develops solar-power technology.  Ottman currently has patents pending on two products – a solar-powered Christmas light and a hybrid renewable energy turbine that uses wind and solar power.  Her inventions won an award at the Innovation Expo.  Ottman was a finalist in the 2008 Governor’s Giant Vision competition. 

One-hundred and fifty middle and high school girls from central South Dakota will participate in the Women in Science conference. 

The SD Discovery Center Women in Science Conference is free to all participants and sponsored by the following:  SD NSF EPSCoR; SD Space Grant Consortium; SD Women Work! Women’s Educational Equity Act Project; SD Knights of Columbus; and the SD Department of Education.