Yale University has introduced a $14 million fund Friday, in memory of Michele Dufault, a senior student who was killed in a laboratory accident. The fund will benefit female students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics at Yale.
The university established the Michele Dufault Endowment for Yale Women in Science in honor of the student from Scituate, Mass., who died two years ago when her hair was pulled into a fast-spinning piece of lab equipment.
The endowment will finance undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, and summer undergraduate research opportunities, conferences and workshops developed to persuade women to take up such studies.
''No one better exemplified the intellectual drive, curiosity, talent and energy of young women who will become leaders in science than Michele Dufault,'' Richard Levin, Yale President said. ''Michele, a double major in physics and astronomy, was an evangelist for physics and for women in science, an explorer of ideas, a talented researcher and a leader of formidable capacity.
Yale said that Dufault was a talented saxophone player, showed enthusiasm in organizing several events and programs and was regarded as a mentor and source of inspiration by her friends. Her teachers feel that her commitment towards science, technology and innovation, would have changed the world.
