Expanding underrepresented minority participation: America's science and technology talent at the crossroads

The National Research Council. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2011. xv + 269 pp. ISBN 978-0-3091-5968-5. The United States stands again at the crossroads: A national effort to sustain and strengthen S&E [science and engineering] must also include a strategy for ensuring that we draw on the minds and talents of all Americans, including minorities who are underrepresented in S&E and currently embody a vastly underused resource and a lost opportunity for meeting our nation's technology needs. (p. 2) The report defines underrepresented minorities as African Americans, Hispanic or Latino/a Americans, Native Americans and Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. In reading…