Links

The Association for Women in Science advocates for gender equity in the STEM fields and supports women pursuing scientific careers in all sectors. Established in 1971, the AWIS provides educational foundation awards, career resources, mentoring supports, and publications relevant to women in STEM. Recent publications include an updated version of A Hand Up: Women Mentoring Women in Science, the AWIS’s “paper mentor” for aspiring scientists. For more information or to join Washington Wire, the free bimonthly mailing list, visit www.awis.org. 

Graduate Women in Science (Sigma Delta Epsilon), a national interdisciplinary society founded in 1921, supports its members’ scientific careers by providing opportunities to publish, network, and conduct outreach on behalf of women in science. Membership is open to anyone holding at least a bachelor’s degree in a scientific discipline, and member benefits include networking opportunities and subscription to GWIS publications. GWIS also offers several annual grants and fellowships. For more information and a membership application, visit www.gwis.org.

The American Physical Society’s Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) exemplifies one disciplinary organization’s commitment to “the recruitment, retention, and career development” of women in its field. The CSWP supports women physicists through various programs including professional development workshops, grant support for on-campus consulting visits, and the M. Hildred Blewett scholarship (available to early-career women physicists returning to research after an interruption for family reasons). For information about these and other initiatives, visit www.aps.org/programs/women/.

The Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) represents one institution’s effort to create a “centralized, visible administrative structure with a mission to address a number of impediments to women’s academic advancement.” WISELI supports several innovative initiatives, including climate workshops for department chairs and the long-running Woman Faculty Mentoring Program. To view the WISELI Web site, which houses a wealth of information about these projects and about UW-Madison’s relevant policies and programs, visit wiseli.engr.wisc.edu/index.html.

Project Kaleidoscope, an informal national alliance, advocates for undergraduate learning in the sciences that is “experiential,” “personally meaningful,” and located within a collaborative community. PKAL believes that science education should provide students with “personal experience with the joy of discovery and an awareness of the influence of science and technology in their world.” To read more about PKAL’s mission, values, and supporting initiatives, including publications and forthcoming events, visit www.pkal.org.

The Spring 2008 issue of AAC&U’s journal Liberal Education explores practices and pedagogies that strengthen undergraduate education in the sciences and bridge the gaps between technical and liberal education. The issue examines the need for all undergraduates, whether or not they plan to major in science, to achieve scientific literacy in order to act as engaged citizens in the modern world. To read selected articles or order single issue copies, visit www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-sp08/le-sp08_index.cfm.