Perspectives on Science and Engineering (Science 198) gives students with exceptional preparation in science and mathematics a special opportunity to start exploring research as soon as they enter Yale. This interdepartmental program is designed to introduce first year students to a representative cross-section of science and engineering faculty and their research disciplines.

Professor Richard Lifton, Chair of Genetics in the Yale University School of Medicine, talks with Perspectives students following a lecture on the molecular genetics of hypertension.

Perspectives on Science and Engineering meets weekly during both the fall and spring semesters of the freshman year. Every other week, a faculty member presents his or her research in a broad and non-technical exposition. In the week following each faculty presentation, small groups of students and faculty get together to discuss the research and its significance. In these small and intimate classes, students get a sense of the excitement of contemporary research, while getting to know some of the faculty active in their fields of interest.

Perspectives discussion sessions bring faculty and students together in small groups to discuss the previous week's lecture.

At the end of the year, Perspectives students are offered stipends to support summer research in faculty laboratories. In the fall, sophomores return to present their research at the Perspectives on Science and Engineering Summer Research Symposium.

Summer 2006 Perspectives on Science and Engineering Research Fellows enjoy a picnic in East Rock Park.