Bruce Lewenstein, associate professor of science communication at Cornell University, has been named director of what has been known since 1988 as the New York State Pew Program in Undergraduate Science Education. The organization comprises seven institutions in New York state, including Cornell, working together to improve undergraduate education in science and mathematics.

On July 1, the original funding organization, Pew Charitable Trusts, is withdrawing from the program in the belief that its success permits it to become self-supporting in the future. It will be renamed the New York Science Education Program.

"This organization is needed to help keep science education vibrant," said Lewenstein, who also is editor of the journal Public Understanding of Science. "It is especially important in smaller schools where faculty don't have the kind of research resources that Cornell has but believe equally deeply that a research culture is essential for training students and educating them in science."

The New York organization originally was funded by Pew as part of grants to five clusters of colleges and universities, involving 46 schools throughout the United States. (Three additional clusters comprising 26 schools were added in 1989.) In New York, the cluster was formed by Cornell, Barnard College, Colgate University, Hamilton College, Manhattan College, St. Lawrence University and Union College. The program supports a number of activities, including summer research fellowships for undergraduates, curriculum development and faculty exchanges.

Yervant Terzian, Cornell's James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences, became the New York group's director, a position he retained until stepping down earlier this year. During his tenure, his fund-raising efforts enabled the program to funnel $3.25 million to the seven New York institutions for the improvement of science education.

With Terzian's departure, the program will become self-supporting, relying on contributions from the seven college administrations as well as fund-raising efforts.

"Pew believes that the program is now successful enough for the institutions themselves to take over," said Lewenstein. "Each institution in our cluster said that this program is important enough to us to fund ourselves. As a result, as of July 1 each school in the cluster will be funding the program directly."

In making the transition to self-support, Pew has contributed $150,000 to the cluster over the past four years, and the seven members have contributed more than $400,000. As of July 1, each school has agreed to contribute $18,000 a year through 2002 to the program. Cornell, as the research-university anchor of the cluster, has agreed to contribute additional finances and resources through the provost's office. The program will have an annual budget of about $140,000 through 2002.

Not only will the seven schools have to work hard at fund-raising, said Lewenstein, but they also will be redefining the program. "We can do this in several ways," he said. "One way is to create partnerships between each of the schools and a local science center. As part of their training in science, undergraduates could learn to be explainers and demonstrators at the science centers. We know that the best way to get students to learn is to get them to teach. We want to build into the culture of undergraduate science that outreach is one of the best ways to get things done."

Lewenstein is also taking over the directorship of the Josephine Hopkins Foundation Workshop, an annual information session at Cornell for science journalists and educators. Terzian also relinquished that post earlier this year. The workshop will not be held this year but will resume in 2000.