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Lindsay Chura, who was awarded a Gates Cambridge scholarship to do a PhD in Psychiatry, spelt out her concerns in a letter to the incoming US administration published in the New York Times.
In it, she argues that Al Gore's recent call for young Americans to help chart the path to energy independence "underscores the increasingly vital role of math and science education in the United States".

She calls for more funding for the National Science Foundation and science enrichment activities in schools as a way of driving forward innovative new technologies which can address both climate change and energy needs.

Lindsay, from Slingerlands, New York, began her PhD this September and is looking at whether exposure to high levels of testosterone in the womb can predispose a baby to autism. She has been writing letters to the press on science education issues for some time and had a letter published in the London Times a couple of years ago.

This year she felt even more galvanised to write as she has recently completed an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellowship aimed specifically at promoting the public understanding of science. During this fellowship, Lindsay worked as a science writer at US News & World Report in Washington, DC and she focused her work on a feature article that examined the potential long-term impact of climate change.

"Science education is something I feel very strongly about," Lindsay said as she explained that she participated in various science competitions on the regional and national level during high school.
“Autism and climate change are two topics that have more in common than one might think.” Lindsay, a Mount Holyoke alumna, explained. “While they represent different fields within science, both have tremendous policy implications and would benefit from a greater public understanding of how scientists are trying to tackle the unanswered questions. This increased understanding and awareness, I believe, must begin in school.”

Lindsay, who is at Trinity College and is supervised by autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen,is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. In the years to come, Lindsay plans to continue raising awareness of the link she sees between education in schools and the future direction of health and science policy in the US and around the world.

Lindsay is one of 97 new Gates scholars who arrived at Cambridge in September. Some 828 scholars from 85 different countries have been on the scholarship programme since 2001. ̽��ֱ��Gates Cambridge scholarships were established in 2000 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to enable outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the ̽��ֱ��.They are awarded on the basis of a person's intellectual ability, leadership capacity and desire to use their knowledge to contribute to society.
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