Wayne State University Chemistry Professor Mary Kay Pflum will be the keynote speaker for the Explorathon 2002 at Birmingham Seaholm High School in Birmingham on Thursday, March 28th, starting at 9 a.m.

Pflum will speak about the unlimited possibilities a career in science can offer young ladies. Pflum, who specializes in organic chemistry, said she wants to remove the mystique from science. She plans to let the female students know that science is something that is applied in everyday life.

"Science isn't a magic trick done in a lab," Pflum said. "There's no limit to what someone can do."

Explorathon 2002 is expected to draw 900 female students from schools throughout metro Detroit. The American Association of University Women and Cranbrook Institute sponsor the event.

Pflum, a native of Nebraska, earned her Ph.D. from Yale University and was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard University before she joined the faculty at Wayne State last year.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 14 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.