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Women in Materials Science & Engineering

The Women in Materials Science & Engineering interest group provides a forum for dialog among women (and men) working in, or pursuing education towards a profession in materials science or engineering. The goal is to share ideas and strategies that may be useful in professional life and to generate ideas for promoting awareness of women's issues to the broad professional community. 

We invite you to participate in the Women in MS&E activities:

• SUBSCRIBE to the Women in MS&E E-Newsletter: In general, coverage will be driven by the active involvement of the readers. Topics might include academic tenure, career strategies, management styles, family management issues, among others. You will also see announcements of forums, meetings, Web sites or other mailing lists of particular interest to women in the materials research community. You are encouraged to make use of this avenue to make announcements or raise issues of interest to you.
  
  This newsletter is moderated and edited by Dr. Gopal Rao (Materials Research Society) and Dr. Kui Yu (National Research Council, Canada) to ensure appropriate discussion on topics for women in materials science and engineering. Comments recorded here are those of the participants and are not those of the Materials Research Society. The Society will not accept legal liability for comments posted in this newsletter. If you have any questions or comments for the moderator, please direct them to mrs-women@mrs.org
  
  
• Attend the Women in MS&E Breakfasts, held at both the MRS Spring and Fall Meetings. These special gatherings feature a timely discussion of issues facing women in the materials science and engineering professions. It is also a great opportunity to network with eminent women in MS&E from around the world.  Details regarding specific Women in MS&E Breakfasts at upcoming meetings will appear at the bottom of this page when available.

Documents

• Women and MRS Prizes/Awards
  MRS sponsors a number of prestigious prizes, but very, very few have been awarded to women.
• The Role of Professional Societies in Promoting Women – Case Study: MRS
  Presentation by 2008 MRS President Cynthia Volkert
  Women in MS&E Breakfast, Nov. 28, 2007
  2007 MRS Fall Meeting, Boston

Links

• Women in MS&E Newsletter - June, 2009 Issue
• Women in MS&E Newsletter - March 2009 Issue
• Women in MS&E Newsletter - November 2008 Issue
• Women in MS&E Newsletter - October 2008 Issue
• Materials Community Examines Gender Equity
  (MRS Bulletin)
  Nearly 100 members of the materials science and engineering community from across the United States met May 18–20, 2008 at the University of Maryland, College Park, six miles from Washington, DC. Academic department heads, national laboratory researchers, and federal agency representatives attended the workshop on “Gender Equity in Materials Science & Engineering.” They convened to learn what unconscious biases are and to discuss how biases and institutional systems affect the representation of genders in the field.
  (September 25, 2008)

• Her College Experience Is Not His
  (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
  ... data has enabled me to assess how gender shapes the characteristics of women and men entering college, how both genders experience college, and how college influences them. And I have found that women and men differ significantly from each other — and in ways that raise many questions for further research.
  (September 25, 2008)

• Women and Minority Members Tend to Take Longer to Earn Ph.D.s
  (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
  Women and members of minority groups tend to take longer than other subsets of the population to complete doctoral programs, while international students stand out as the fastest in earning Ph.D.'s, according to a report being released today by the Council of Graduate Schools. The report, based on data from 24 universities in the United States and Canada, is unusual both in its large scope—covering 19,000 students who entered doctoral programs in the 1990s—and in its attention to which students finish doctoral programs later than others.
  (September 10, 2008)
• A New Frontier for Title IX: Science
  (The New York Times)
  Until recently, the impact of Title IX, the law forbidding sexual discrimination in education, has been limited mostly to sports. But now, under pressure from Congress, some federal agencies have quietly picked a new target: science. The National Science Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy have set up programs to look for sexual discrimination at universities receiving federal grants. Investigators have been taking inventories of lab space and interviewing faculty members and students in physics and engineering departments at schools like Columbia, the University of Wisconsin, M.I.T. and the University of Maryland.
  (July 15, 2008)
• Women in MS&E Newsletter - June 2008 Issue
• Women in MS&E Breakfast - 2008 MRS Spring Meeting
  Report in the Meeting Scene
• Women in MS&E Newsletter - February 2008 Issue
• Women in MS&E Newsletter - December 2007 Issue
• Women in MS&E Breakfast - 2007 MRS Fall Meeting
  Report in the Meeting Scene
• Women in MS&E Newsletter - August 2007 Issue
• Women in MS&E Newsletter - March 2007 Issue
• Broad National Effort Urgently Needed To Maximize Potential of Women Scientists and Engineers in Academia
  Report by The National Academies dated September 18, 2006