How will the world change over the next 50 years because of science and technology?

That’s the question being posed to Chicago Public Schools seventh graders this week in “Imagining the Future,” an essay contest sponsored by the Chicago Council on Science and Technology, or C˛ST, 750 N. Lake Shore Drive.

Think about it for a second. Less than a half century ago, people used typewriters to write essays and they sent them via the good old postal service rather than by e-mail. There was no Internet. No going online whenever you felt like it. I’m writing this column on a computer that sits on my lap, which is amazing. You couldn’t do that in 1960!

Science is no longer for geeks (think about the verrry rich Bill Gates). That’s why Gold Coaster Alan Schriesheim Ph.D., a founder and president of the nonprofit council, is looking for bright ideas through the contest.

“We need to improve the importance of our education system so our students have an education that fits them for a competitive world,” said Schriesheim, who has a doctorate in chemistry and founded the now 300-member council in 2006 with Adler Planetarium President Paul Knappenberger. “C˛ST cannot solve all these problems, but it can raise the awareness.”

C˛ST is a consortium of academic, research and cultural institutions and corporations that sponsors educational programs (upcoming is an April program on women in science), roundtables, advocacy activities and special projects.

For their essays about the future contest, which ends Feb. 19, kids can write about what they see as the future of energy, the environment, health, computers, communications, transportation, food, housing, entertainment or anything else that interests them.

Essays will be judged by scientists at Argonne National Laboratory, and 100 winners will be chosen. Each winner receives a group tour of Argonne and one-day admission passes for two to the Adler Planetarium, Museum of Science and Industry, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum and Chicago Botanic Gardens, all of which are council partners.

Schriesheim, a retiree of Argonne National Laboratory who also worked for Exxon and is a Children’s Memorial Hospital board member, hopes to increase public awareness on what science and technology can do for society. His dream is for C˛ST to become a provider of info on critical issues and a force for education on science and technology in Chicago.

He said a survey released by the Washington D.C.-based Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the American Association for the Advancement of Science last July revealed an increasing disconnect between scientists and the general public.

But Schriesheim said without science, technology and math we “could not live the life lived today.”

“We’d be back in the horse manure days,” he quipped.

For more info visit www.c2st.org, e-mail info@c2st.org or call 312-503-0891.

A LOSS AT COLUMBIA Everyone who crossed the path of Columbia College journalism professor Jim Sulski, including me, was a lucky person. Upon returning home from Jamaica last week I learned the sad news that Jim, 52, died on Jan. 7 after a long fight with cancer.

I’ll never forget when I was his student and unbeknownst to me, Jim entered some of my work into a competition, leading to first and second place finishes in the Illinois College Press Association awards. competition The news completely stunned me.

Then about a year ago, Jim wrote me a letter of recommendation that helped lead to a masters degree fellowship at the school, which I am in the midst of now.

In life, there are people you know you will just never forget. For me, Jim Sulski is one of those people.