Promoting diversity in STEM
In changes aimed at improving the quality of graduate student advising, Stanford University’s Faculty Senate last week voted to require departments to spell out advising expectations for both professors and students.
I am surrounded by workaholics. At every college where I have taught, the unspoken mantra is that you must always have a project to work on — a new book, a journal article, a series of poems, or a grant proposal. In the faculty mailroom, the most common question is "What are you working on?" An unheard-of response is "Nothing." My adjunct colleagues are trying to publish themselves into a tenure-track position, while the tenure-track faculty members know that if they do not publish their way to tenure, they are done. Then there is the tenured faculty. They set the pace for everyone else by keeping their foot on the gas. Some of these people are in their 70s, with bags under their eyes, and CVs as long as Jack Kerouac’s scroll of On the Road. Yet, they never stop. As one of my colleagues once told me, "Academia is like a pie-eating contest where the reward is more pie."
Female scientists are under-represented in global research. Nature has long argued the need for initiatives to increase their opportunities and participation — so we are delighted to announce an awards programme that aims to do both. The two annual awards will recognize inspirational early-career female researchers and those who have worked to champion young women’s and girls’ participation in science. By rewarding and celebrating these achievements, we hope the programmes will contribute to a positive shift towards the equity sorely needed in the research community.
