All Entries in the "STEM Fields" Category
Report Finds a Gender Disparity in Laboratory Space at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
The analysis found that the gender differences in lab, storage, and office space could not be explained by seniority, discipline, funding, or size of the faculty member’s research group. Rather they conclude that “our analysis points to the existence of widespread, institution-wide cultural barriers to gender equity within Scripps.”
Women Making Progress in STEM Education and Occupations, But More Work Needs to Be Done
The number of science and engineering degrees earned by women between 2011 and 2020 increased by 63 percent at the associate’s level, 34 percent at the bachelor’s level, 45 percent at the master’s degree level, and 18 percent at the doctorate level. But in 2021 women, who were 51 percent of the population, represented about one-third of the STEM workforce.
Michigan State University’s Felicia Wu to Lead the Society for Risk Analysis
Felicia Wu is a John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in the department of food science and human nutrition and the department of agricultural, food and resource economics at Michigan State University. Her research examines the national and global burden of foodborne disease, how improved nutrition can counteract the harmful effects of toxins, and how cost-effective strategies can improve food safety.
Cornell University’s Huili Grace Xing to Lead the Superior Energy-Efficient Materials and Devices Center
Fourteen universities in partnership with the Semiconductor Research Corporation will explore both fundamental new science and novel engineering technologies, with the aim of driving the semiconductor industry in the next 3-15 years, while also training the next generation of scientists and engineers to work across disciplines.
Hollins University and Sweet Briar College Join the Women in STEM Alliance
Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, and Sweet Briar College in Virginia are founding partner institutions for a new women-focused professional development program that offers students technology and career readiness skills. The two women’s educational institutions are joining with technology company Cognosante to prepare women for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
MIT Scholar to Lead the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the U.S. Department of Energy
Evelyn Wang, the Ford Professor of Engineering and head of the department of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is stepping down as department head and will take a temporary leave as a faculty member at MIT while she serves in this public service role.
Meredith College Offers Dual-Degree Program in Aerospace Engineering With North Carolina State University
In the past, Meredith College students majoring in mathematics could earn a second bachelor’s degree in biological, biomedical, civil, computer, electrical, industrial, or mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University. Now for the first time, students at Meredith College that are majoring in mathematics can earn a second bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering.
Wellesley College Opens New Science Center
Wellesley College, the highly rated liberal arts education for women in suburban Boston, recently opened its new Science Complex. The nearly 100,000-square-foot facility was the most significant construction project in Wellesley College’s history.
Study Finds Role-Playing May Boost Young Girls’ Interest in STEM Fields
A new study by scholars at Yale University, Duke University, and the University of Chicago, finds that science role-playing may help tighten the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math education and careers for women simply by improving their identity as scientists.
Ellen Gawait Is the First Woman Dean of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Duquesne University
A faculty member at Duquesne since 2003, Dr. Gawalt is a Hillman Distinguished Professor and formerly served as chair of the school’s chemistry and biochemistry departments. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific papers and presentations.
Three Women Are Among the Four Finalists for Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of New Mexico
The three women finalists are Donna Riley of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, Anne Skaja Robinson of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and Iris Rivero of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
New Initiative to Help Women in Need Complete Their Bachelor’s Degrees in Tech Fields
Rewriting the Code, a nonprofit organization that aims to empower women to become the next generation of engineers and tech leaders, has joined with the Last Mile Education Fund, an organization that offers scholarships to students from underrepresented groups who need help to complete their degrees, has announced the establishment of the RTC Women in Tech Fund.
New EEOC Report Examines the Status of Women in Federal Government STEM Jobs
Overall, women accounted for 29.3 percent of STEM federal workers. Women held less than 6 percent of all positions relating to mathematics. A total of 16,454 women served in STEM leadership roles, compared to 47,167 men.
Study Finds Women Are Less Likely to Win Academic Awards Named After Men Than Other Academic Awards
A new study by researchers at the University of Birmingham in England finds that women received 15 percent of the total number of awards given out. But they were only 12 percent of the winners of awards that were named after men. Men won a majority of the awards named after women.
Banishing the Stereotype That Women Do Not Perform Well in College-Level Physics
Researchers at Texas A&M University gathered data from 10,000 students over the course of 10 years. All students had taken introductory physics courses, of which exam scores and final averages were analyzed. According to the data, there was no evidence that female students performed worse in these specific courses.
Lia Mermonga Is the First Woman to Lead the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Fermilab is a 6,800-acre facility headquartered in Batavia, Illinois. It is the United States’ premier particle physics and accelerator laboratory. Dr. Merminga first came to Fermilab in 1987 as a student in the newly established graduate program in accelerator physics.
Laurie Leshin Will Be the First Women to Direct the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Since 2014, Dr. Leshin has served as president of Worcester Poytehcnic Institute in Massachusetts. She is the only woman to lead the university in its more than 150-year history. Dr. Leshin will also serve as vice president of the California Institute of Technology, which operates the laboratory for NASA.
Andrea Burrows of the University of Wyoming Elected President of the Association for Science Teacher Education
Dr. Burrows has been associated with ASTE for 14 years including serving as the leader of the professional development committee and the conference planning committee as well as being an associate editor of the Journal of Science Teacher Education.
Angela K. Wilson Is the New President of the American Chemical Society
Angela K. Wilson is the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Michigan State University. She is a prominent scholar in the fields of theoretical and computational chemistry. Before joining the faculty at Michigan State, Dr. Wilson was the director of the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation from 2016 to 2018.
Four Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Endowed Professorships in the School of Science at MIT
The four women named to endowed chairs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are Gloria Choi in brain and cognitive sciences, Arlene Fiore in Earth and planetary sciences, Danna Freedman in chemistry, and Seychelle M. Vos in biology.
Vanderbilt University’s Cynthia Reinhart-King Will Lead the Biomedical Engineering Society
Professor Reinhart-King, the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, is a cellular bioengineer whose seminal work on extracellular matrices has contributed to a breakthrough in understanding tumor formation. The citations of her cellular bioengineering research number in the thousands.
Social Inclusion of Women by Male Colleagues in STEM Fields Can Improve Their Workplace Experience
Surveys of 1,247 professional scientists and engineers from nine organizations, found that even a small amount of social inclusion of women by male colleagues can go a long way toward reducing the gender barriers experienced by women in STEM fields.
Yale’s Debra Fischer to Lead the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the National Science Foundation
Dr. Fischer is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Yale University. Dr. Fischer will relocate to Washington, D.C. for the new job, but will continue to oversee her Yale research. She is the first Yale faculty member to be selected for the role.
Jeanne VanBriesen to Lead the NSF’s Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems
Dr. VanBriesen joined Carnegie Mellon in 1999 as an assistant professor and was awarded an endowed professorship in 2014. She recently served as the university’s vice provost for faculty and previously served as chair of the Faculty Senate. Dr. VanBriesen’s research focuses on the biodegradation and thermodynamics of microbial systems
Elizabeth Paul, a Rising Star in Plasma Physics, Wins Award From the American Physical Society
Elizabeth Paul, a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory has won the prestigious and highly competitive 2021 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award, presented by the American Physical Society.
Women Academics Are Likely to Feel Like Imposters in Fields Regarded as Needing “Brilliance” to Succeed
A new study led by psychologists at New York University finds that the more an academic discipline is perceived to require raw talent or “brilliance” for success, the more both women and early-career academics feel professionally inadequate — like “impostors”. This is particularly true for women from racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in these fields.
Carnegie Mellon University Scholar Honored by the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence
Dr. Fei Fang’s research uses game theory and machine learning to handle real-world challenges such as security, environmental sustainability, food security, and mobility. Her work has helped rangers and local communities combat poaching and to reduce food insecurity. Since 2013, her research has been used by the U.S. Coast to protect the Staten Island Ferry in New York City
UNESCO Report Finds Women Remain Far Behind Men in the High-Tech Sector
The UNESCO Science Report 2021 finds that women worldwide have made tremendous gains in the academic world but they remain far behind men in emerging fields such as data science, robotics, computing, and artificial intelligence.
Susan Margulies to Head the National Science Foundation’s Directorate of Engineering
Dr. Margulies, who teaches at Emory University and Georgia Tech, will be the first biomedical engineer to head the directorate, which supports fundamental research, enhances the nation’s innovation through a range of initiatives, and is a driving force behind the training and development of the United States’ engineering workforce.
Study Examines Difficulties Women in STEM Fields Face When They Return From a Career Break
The survey also found that 27 percent of women returning to jobs in the STEM sector after a career break have experienced gender bias. Only 8 percent of men reported that they had been victims of gender bias after a career break. Some 30 percent of women felt they were victims of bias due to their childcare responsibilities.
Report Documents the Employment Shortfall of Women in the Tech Workforce
A new report from the Computing Technology Industry Association offers a wealth of data on employment in the technology sector. Some of the data included in the report on employment in technology jobs is broken down by gender. Nationally, women represent approximately 49 percent of the U.S. workforce and 26 percent of the workforce in tech occupations.
A New Approach to Science Education May Help Reduce the Gender Gap in STEM Fields
A new study by researchers at North Carolina State University finds that fifth-grade girls who participated in science classes that were held outdoors had higher average science grades and an increase in a measure of scientific knowledge than girls who participated only in traditional classroom settings.
Women Outnumber Men in the Entering Class of Physics Doctoral Students at Yale University
Nationally, only about 20 percent of physics doctorate holders are women. But for the first time in the history of Yale University, the incoming class of physics doctoral students, who will likely graduate in 2027 or 2028, will include more women than men.
Rice University Scholar Honored by the International Society of Bayesian Analysis
Marina Vannucci is the Noah Harding Professor of Statistics at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Dr. Vannucci, who has taught at Rice Univerity since 2007, also holds an adjunct appointment in biostatistics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Pew Research Center Report Documents Gender Gap in STEM Degree Attainment and Employment
Women now earn a majority of all undergraduate and advanced degrees. But they remain a small share of degree earners in fields like engineering and computer science – areas where they are significantly underrepresented in the workforce. And when women do find work in STEM fields they tend to earn less than men.
