Empowering Women in Science
– A Note From Our Head
As an underrepresented group in U.S. chemistry, women can face special challenges in achieving their career goals. I am proud to say that the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois has been especially proactive, leading the nation with innovative programs and resources to provide support networks and communal links that foster the career success of female students.
For example, since 1993 our Merit Workshops for Emerging Scholars have dramatically increased the retention of all underrepresented groups. These special discussion sections of undergraduate lectures utilize the pioneering methods developed by Uri Treisman in the 1980s to create challenging collaborative learning environments where social bonds mutually reinforce problem solving exercises.
In 1999, with the generous support of an alumna of our program, Yulan Tong, the Sylvia Stoesser Lecture series was started. This lecture series focuses both on the contributions made by women chemists and the special challenges that they face within the discipline. To read more about the extraordinary life and career of Sylvia Stoesser, who has been compared with Marie Curie, and about the lecture series itself, see the link above.
In Fall of 2005 we became the first Department of Chemistry in the U.S. to offer "COACh" workshops to our female graduate students and postdocs. The Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists (COACh) teaches women to be more effective when leading or participating in discussions, meetings, or negotiations.
For more information on these and additional resources and events please see the links below. If you have questions about any of the programs outlined here, please do not hesitate to contact me. My office is committed to the idea that true gender and racial equality in the field of chemistry will not be achieved until the "pipeline issue" is solved: women and underrepresented minorities must obtain B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the top chemistry programs and in proportion to their representation within the population.
Sincerely,
Steven C. Zimmerman