Tables covered with cloth white as snow; sliced strawberries and cantaloupes piled up into small hills; young women in formal suits weaving through people of different ages. Yes, you get it: the 36th SENIOR SYMPOSIUM was lighting up every corner of the once deserted Kendade with passion and intelligence on Friday, April 16, 2010. People moved from room to room to attend fifteen minute presentations in various disciplines given by Mount Holyoke College students. One of the staff attending the event remarked: “It is just like Christmas!”

The United States, one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries, has enjoyed a long-standing reputation and prestige in its dynamic, competitive and complex research programs in science as well as social science. Science has been an important investment for the States, through which promising research proposals are reviewed and funded by government, corporations and charitable foundations. However, beginning in December 2007, the economic recession has had an important impact not only on employment and productivity, but also on scientific research conducted nationwide.