Laura Croal, a 1995 graduate of Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha, recently served on the Women in Science and Technology panel led by Vice President Al Gore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The panel was created to review the present state of women in the sciences, and to encourage more involvement and identify barriers to participation. The panel included students, faculty, University administrators, and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin.

Croal, the daughter of Tim and Graciela Croal of Puerto Rico, will graduate in May from the UW-Madison”s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences with a bachelor of science degree in bacteriology. She has accepted a position to study at the California Institute of Technology in the biology Ph. D. program.

While in school, Croal was involved with the American Society of for Microbiology, the Order of Omega Honor Society, the Alpha Chi Sigma Chemistry Fraternity, and was a member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority. She coordinated her time as a teaching assistant for Bacteriology, was a group leader for Expanding Your Horizons, and was a member of University Pals (a faction of Big Brothers/Big Sisters).

Croal earned many honors while at the UW-Madison. She received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Award, the UW-Sesquicentennial Undergraduate Research Fellowship, the American Society for Microbiology Student Travel Grant, the Wisconsin/Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Award, the Golden Key National Honor Society, the Powers-Knapp Scholarship, and was named a McNair Scholar.

The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences has about 2,000 undergraduates and 24 majors in agriculture, environmental and natural resources, biological sciences and food systems. The college”s faculty are ranked as the best in the nation, according to “Science Watch” magazine. Its bacteriology department was formed as Agricultural Bacteriology in 1893, and established as the Department Of Bacteriology in 1914.