JPL, Black Schools Start Joint Programs

In an effort to increase the number of blacks entering science and engineering fields, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech signed agreements Tuesday for a joint academic program with seven historically black colleges and universities in the South.

“The black colleges and universities have a great resource we have not been tapping,” said Martin Leipold, manager of the program for JPL. He said the Pasadena area lab will offer summer research jobs to the students, and JPL scientists and Caltech professors will lecture at the schools.

The agreements are with Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, the Morehouse School of Medicine, Spelman College and Morris Brown College, all in Georgia, as well as Jackson State University in Mississippi and Tuskegee University in Alabama. JPL, a center for outer space exploration, is run by Caltech for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.