All Entries in the "STEM Fields" Category
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.
Women Are Closing the Gap in Enrollments in Graduate Degree Programs in STEM and Health Fields
Men still outnumber women in master’s and doctoral degree programs as well as in postdoctoral researchers in STEM and health disciplines at U.S. academic institutions. But new data from the National Science Foundation shows that women are closing the gender gap.
Dipti Itchhaporia Is the New President of the American College of Cardiology
Itchhaporia is an interventional cardiologist who holds the Eric and Sheila Samson Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Health and is the director of disease management for the Jeffrey M. Carlton Heart and Vascular Institute in Newport Beach, California. She is an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine.
Texas A&M University Study Finds No Gender Gap in Success in Physics Courses
The researchers analyzed both the midterm exam scores and final grades of more than 10,000 Texas A&M students in physics courses over a 10-year period. They found no evidence that male students outperformed women students in these courses.
The American Society for Engineering Education Chooses a New Leader
Jenna Carpenter is the founding dean of the School of Engineering at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. Dr. Carpenter will serve a one-year term as president-elect of the 12,000-member society beginning in June, followed by a full year as ASEE president.
Chien-Shiung Wu is the Third Woman Physicist to Be Honored With a U.S. Commemorative Stamp
Dr. Wu was the first female president of the American Physical Society, the first woman hired to a tenure-track position in the physics department at Columbia University, and the first living scientist to have an asteroid named in her honor.
MIT’s Shafi Goldwasser Wins the 2021 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Award
Founded in 1998, the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards annually honors five eminent women scientists representing every major region of the world. The award honors women for excellent research within the physical sciences, mathematics, and computer science.
A Record Number of Women Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences recently announced the election of 100 new members. This year, 40 of the new members are women, the most ever elected to the academy in a single year.
Study Warns That Women Graduate Students in Chemistry Are Not Receiving Adequate Support
A new study by researchers at the University of Oregon finds that insufficient interactions with advisers and peers, as well as financial problems, are derailing career aspirations of women and minority groups pursuing graduate degrees in the nation’s highest-funded chemistry programs.
New UCLA Initiatives Aims to Increase Women in Computing Education and Technology Careers
Momentum: Accelerating Equity in Computing and Technology will engage in critical research and actions to diversify participation in computing and technology fields. The effort is sorely needed. Women currently hold just 26 percent of computing jobs.
Yale’s Marina Picciotto Awarded the Andrew Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Science
Marina R. Picciotto is the Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry at Yale Medical School and professor in the Child Study Center at the university. She also serves as editor in chief of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Three Women Earn Engineering Doctorates at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
For the first time in its history, the School of Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has awarded doctorates to three women students in the same term. The women, Sandra Cutts, Jaquice Boyd, and Ashlyn Manzella, all received their doctoral degrees in civil engineering.
