Carlos Castillo-Chavez (CCC) is the Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor of Mathematical Biology at Arizona State University. He spent 18 years at Cornell University (1985-2003), the last four with a joint professorship appointment in the departments of biological statistics and computational biology and theoretical and applied mechanics. He will continue his association with Cornell University as an adjunct professor. CCC has received numerous awards including two White House Awards (1992 and 1997), the 2002 SACNAS Distinguished Scientist Award and the Richard Tapia Award (2003). He has co-authored over one hundred publications and edited or co-authored six books. His edited volume (with Tom Banks) on the use of mathematical models in homeland security has just been published in SIAM's Frontiers in Applied Mathematics.

He held the position of Ulam Scholar at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory during 2003. He is the Founder and Director of the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute that has provided research opportunities in applied mathematics to undergraduate and graduate students since 1996.

John Delano holds the rank of Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and in the Department of Chemistry at the University at Albany. Since 1998, he has been an Associate Director of the New York Center for Studies on the Origin of Life, which one of two NASA Specialized Centers of Research and Training in the United States devoted to the study of life´s origin and distribution in the galaxy. He received his Ph.D. in geochemistry at Stony Brook University in 1977, was a postdoctoral fellow in the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia from 1977 to 1980, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at Stony Brook University from 1980 to 1982. He joined the faculty at the University at Albany in 1982, and was chairperson in the Department of the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in 1996-1999. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in his field, he has been a faculty member in the University´s Project Renaissance and Presidential Scholars programs.

John´s current research involves determining the environmental stresses of large impacting asteroids on the early Earth more than 3.9 billion years ago, and implications for the rise of sustainable life on the Earth. That portion of his NASA research involves chemical and isotopic analysis of materials from the Moon to constrain the time-dependent flux of large impacting objects in the Earth/Moon system. He is also working to understand the nature of the Earth´s atmosphere more than 4.0 billion years ago to determine if the famous Urey-Miller experiment (i.e., lightning in a hydrogen, methane, ammonia-rich atmosphere) actually contributed to the formation of prebiotic molecules that ultimately led to life on this planet. John has served on numerous review panels for NASA and NSF, is a principal investigator in NASA´s Exobiology Program, and is the author of more than 50 scientific publications.

Carlos Garcia is an Associate in the Office of K-16 Initiatives and Access Programs in the New York State Education Department. His specific responsibilities include oversight for the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP), a statewide initiative in higher/professional education that increases the numbers of minority and economically disadvantaged students pursuing careers in the areas of math, science, technology and the licensed professions. Originally from the East New York section of Brooklyn, Carlos Garcia earned his undergraduate degree from St. Lawrence University where he was a HEOP student. He also earned both the M.A. and Ed.M. degrees in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Mr. Garcia is active in his union, the 52,000-member Public Employees Federation, where he serves on the Executive Board representing several hundred professional, scientific and technical members of the NYS Education Department. He is also a Vice President of the Albany Branch NAACP and an active member of the New Covenant Christian Fellowship in Albany, NY. He has won numerous awards including recent recognition by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in their Alumni Hall of Distinction (March, 2004) and a Distinguished Service Award from the Hispanic Committee of PEF (April, 2004). He is married to Trina and the father of Cora, Carlos, Chaun and Christina.

DiOnetta Jones joined The National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (GEM) staff in October 2001 as Manager of Programs, and currently serves the organization as Director of Education, Training, and Outreach. Her position is integral to the development of partnerships and collaborations with key organizations committed to graduate education for underrepresented students. She is a key player in the development and implementation of GEM´s strategic plan for outreach/recruitment, program development, and training. She works very closely with GEM Fellows and Alumni, University Administrators and Faculty, Industry sponsors, and other Program Directors.

Before joining GEM, she held the position of Statewide Associate Director for California´s Mathematics Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) Schools Program from 1998-2001. She also served as Director of the MESA Schools Program (MSP) and the MESA Engineering Program (MEP) at the University of the Pacific (UOP) in Stockton, CA from 1993-1998. Prior to that, she held a joint position at California State University Sacramento serving as Director of the Business Education Science Team (BEST) Program and Assistant Director for the Capitol Center MSP Project from 1991-1993.

Ms. Jones holds a BA Degree in Communications from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA and a MA Degree in Educational and Counseling Psychology from the University of the Pacific. She has also completed post-graduate course work in Education Administration and Theology.

Lawrence Martin became Dean of the Graduate School at Stony Brook University in 1993 and also serves as Associate Provost for Analysis and Planning (since 2001), he additionally served as Director of International Programs from 1996 to 2003. He is a physical anthropologist who studies the evolution of apes and the origin of humans. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from University College London in 1983 and was then a postdoctoral fellow in Anatomy at UCL. In 1985 he joined the faculty at Stony Brook as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and of Anatomical Sciences. He served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences before his appointment as Dean of the Graduate School.

Lawrence is interested the relationship between faculty productivity and the reputation of graduate programs. He has analyzed the faculty productivity data from the 1995 NRC Study of Research Doctorate Programs in the United States to determine which variables serve as useful predictors of a program´s reputation. The results of this work have been presented at numerous national and regional meetings and he has organized several CGS, CRPGE, and NAGS sessions on the subject of assessing the quality of graduate programs. He serves on the Scholarly Advisory Board for the AAU Assessment of Quality of University Education and Research project and is a member of the National Research Council´s Committee to Study the Methodology for the Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs.

John Mercer is the Dean of the Graduate School at Syracuse University, having served as Interim Dean from January 2002 until February 2003. A Professor of Geography in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, he also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School from 1999 until January 2002. He chaired the Geography Department for eight years (1990-95, 1997-2000). Before coming to Syracuse in 1980, his prior academic appointments were at the University of British Columbia and the University of Iowa. Academic interests include comparative urban development in North America, immigration settlement and housing market change, as well as political geography and governance, chiefly at the urban and regional scale.

Jeryl L. Mumpower currently serves as Interim Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies of the University at Albany, SUNY. His permanent appointment is as Professor of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Information Science at the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, where he joined the faculty in 1984. He has served previously in positions as UAlbany Associate Provost, as Director of the Center for Policy Research and as the Associate Director at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. His previous experience includes six years as a program director and policy analyst at the National Science Foundation.

Professor Mumpower received his B. A. from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in social and quantitative psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is author or editor of nine books and more than fifty book chapters and articles. His research has addressed basic and applied topics in negotiation and bargaining, environmental policy, individual and group decision making processes, the use of scientific expertise in public policy making, and risk analysis and management. He has consulted extensively at both national and state levels of government. He lives in Albany, New York, with his wife, Edwina Dorch. His daughter, Sarah Mumpower, attends SUNY New Paltz.

Dr. Alison G. Power is Dean of the Graduate School and Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA. She received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Washington in 1985. Her research focuses on biodiversity conservation in managed ecosystems, interactions between agricultural and natural ecosystems, agroecology, the ecology and evolution of plant pathogens, and tropical ecology. She currently serves as Vice-President for Public Affairs for the Ecological Society of America and as the Presidential University Fellow of the Nature Conservancy. She also serves on the Committee on California Agricultural Research Priorities of the National Research Council and the Oversight Committee of the Collaborative Crop Research Program of the McKnight Foundation. She has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; the Committee on Sustainable Agriculture and Environment in the Humid Tropics of the National Research Council; the Executive Committee of the Organization for Tropical Studies, EPA´s Scientific Advisory Panel on Transgenic Bt Crops, the Sustainable Biosphere Initiative Steering Committee of the Ecological Society of America, and the Technical Committee of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management CRSP of the U.S.Agency for International Development.

Richard Sleight received his B.S. from the University of Southern California with a major in Biology and minor in Chemistry. He received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Purdue University where he won a campus wide competition as having produced the best dissertation. He then completed a stint as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Institution facility located at Johns Hopkins and joined the faculty of the Department of Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Microbiology at the University of Cincinnati Medical School. After rising through the faculty ranks and being awarded tenure by the University of Cincinnati, he joined the Yale Graduate School in 1996 as Associate Dean. In addition to his duties in the Graduate School, Dean Sleight remains active in teaching and publishing. He is currently president of the Northeastern Associate of Graduate Schools and serves as a board member on several national organizations dedicated to improving the diversity of the graduate student population.

Barrett Whitener is a consultant with Premiere Public Speaking in Washington, D.C. Since 1996, he has co-taught the course 'Speaking About Science' for research fellows at the National Institutes of Health. He has also led seminars on the subject at conferences and research centers around the country. He received his M.A. in Communications from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England and his M.F.A. in 1993 from the University of South Carolina.