STEM Diversity Network

Promoting diversity in STEM

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Harassment should count as scientific misconduct

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When I talk to senior scientists, many view harassment as an injustice that happens somewhere else, not in their field or at their institution. But data suggest that the problem is ubiquitous. In separate surveys of tens of thousands of university students across Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, upwards of 40% of respondents say that they have experienced sexual harassment. A survey last year by the US National Postdoctoral Association found that 28% of respondents reported experiencing at least one instance of harassment while they were trainees; offenders were predominantly reported as being faculty or staff members (go.nature.com/2ju83ox). Neither are faculty members safe from mistreatment by colleagues.

Research culture and policies are quick to denounce plagiarism, data fabrication and mismanagement of funds, yet we have too long ignored the mistreatment of people.

Reconnecting art and science in the classroom

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Today, economic and social growth is driven by disruption. New approaches displace the old with breathtaking speed. Surely the world needs more leaders, thinkers and practitioners who can span realms of knowledge, the more dissimilar and varied the better.

For individuals, groups, and organizations to thrive in today’s global economy, we think that radical diversity of thought is absolutely essential, and perfectly possible. As it is now, the domains of art and science remain too separate. The pieces are in place, however to bring them closer together through our education systems. It is a matter of recognizing the need and acting on it as an essential driver of the next wave of innovation in society.

How poets and filmmakers construe complexity at the Crick Institute

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In 2016, a steel-and-glass spaceship landed next to St Pancras railway station, London’s gateway to Europe. From the start, the biomedical powerhouse that is the Francis Crick Institute set out to put its stamp on a district already home to University College London, the Wellcome Trust and Nature. But how to carve out a cultural niche in an area buzzing with scientific and artistic activity?

Why Everybody Loses When Someone Leaves Academe

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It happened in early January, when all my historian friends were at the annual meeting of the AHA, the leading organization in our field.

I was sitting at home, revising my manuscript introduction and feeling jealous of my friends, when I got an email telling me my last (and best) hope for a tenure-track job this year had evaporated. I’d promised myself that this would be my last year on the market. Of course, I’d promised myself that last year, too, and then decided to try again. But this time, I knew it was over.

Science needs to redefine excellence

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Excellence is everywhere in science. Or that seems to be the plan: to make excellence ubiquitous in research. This month, the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, became the latest academic institution to encourage its scientists to excel, setting up a Regional Centre for Research Excellence in the Caribbean.

To be good is no longer enough — excellence, by definition, must go beyond that.

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Contact

Ahna Skop, PhD, DSc
University of Wisconsin-Madison
2426 Genetics
Madison, WI 53706
608-263-1593
skop@wisc.edu

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