washington

Excellence rewarded: NSF's Rita Colwell hands Winser E. Alexander an award for mentoring. Credit: J SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP

The beleaguered US president, Bill Clinton, has suggested that every scientist on a federal grant should be a mentor to guide minorities, women and disabled people into careers in science and technology.

At a ceremony at the White House last week to present the 1998 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, Clinton said he was asking the National Science and Technology Council to look at ways “to achieve diversity throughout our scientific and technical workforce” and to report back to him within six months.

Clinton, who had just met with the senior Democrat senators whose support he needs to save a presidency now gravely imperilled by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, told the awardees that he “couldn't think of a better subject” than scientific mentoring for him to address “during this process that I';m going through”.

Clinton said there were “tens of thousands of potential mentors” among university and laboratory scientists who are supported by the federal government. “If every one of them was to become a committed and dedicated mentor, think what that would mean,” he said.

Arguing for more action to attract women and minorities into science, Clinton cited a report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which finds that the number of African Americans and Hispanics entering graduate science education fell by 20 per cent between 1996 and 1997.

The association says court rulings and moves by the University of California to end affirmative action have led to “an unwelcome environment” for minority graduate students, causing the decline.