Leadership is required for getting American minorities into research.

participate in community science actzvitzes and view thepromotion ofeducation and mentoring of minorzites as meritorious. The United States has witnessed unprecedented changes in its racial makeup. By way of emphasis at different times in this editorial, I examine the fastest-growing minority in America today, the Hispanics [Chicano (Mexican American), Latino, and Puerto Rican groups], keeping in mind that similar trends and outcomes may be seen for other groups. The U.S. Census data on Hispanics (1) indicate they have the highest fertility rates in America and will soon surpass African Americans as the largest minority. Census projections reveal that within 50 years the Hispanic population will be approximately 100 million. Recent projections by state and race/ethnicity of high school students from now until 2012 (2) reveals important demographic data that cannot be ignored. The three prominent minorities, Hispanics (primarily Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans), African Americans, and Native Americans, will show sharp increases in numbers while the white, non-Latino student numbers will level off. Leadership in our government and throughout research academic institutions and industry must consider that the three major minority groups will approach in number one-half of our nation's population early in the next century. Upon examination of the composition of science and engineering (S&E) graduate programs and the S&E research institutes and industries, our nation's leaders must acknowledge the possible future consequences if numbers of minorities in the S&E fields, at the highest levels, do not keep pace with their demographics. The total combined number of individuals with doctorates in the three historically underrepresented minorities remains unconscionably low in all S&E fields (3,4). Taking the increased numbers of these groups into account, the overall combined numbers of doctorates in these minority groups is worse. There is, therefore, a national emergency to once and for all time reverse the underrepresentation in our country of the composition of our research workforce. How does environment affect the presence of minority groups in the scientific workforce? If children are the future of our country , then what does it say if America has more hungry children than other industrialized nations? The latest annual report on world hunger by Bread for the World (5), a citizen's lobby group, estimates that 13.6 million American children under the age of 12 are either hungry or are at risk of hunger, and most are minority children. One in three minority children is poor and, in certain …