Symposium offers lessons from life of Denice Denton.

With the suicide of UC-Santa Cruz Chancellor Denice D. Denton in June 2006, women in science and engineering especially lost a leader and a champion.

Last month the University of Wisconsin, whose engineering department was the spawning ground of the woman who was called "Tsunami" as an assistant professor of engineering, held a symposium to celebrate her life and legacies. Since I was invited by both the organizing committee as a supporter of women and by the dean of engineering as a tennis teammate of his wife, there was no question of my attendance.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This month's issue starts with the keynote address by Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami. Later issues will feature articles on strategies and tactics for women's success from individual sessions that will be relevant to all women on campus.

--MDW

Keynoter Donna Shalala was chancellor of the flagship Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin while Dr. Denice Denton was an assistant professor of engineering there. From there Shalala went on to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services in the Clinton administration for eight years, then become president of the University of Miami, where she remains.

Denton went on to shake up the Wisconsin campus, then the University of Washington where she was dean of engineering. In 2005 at the age of 45 she went to the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she was chancellor until her death in June 2006.