Women in Materials : a Collaborative Effort between Simmons College and the Cornell Center for Materials Research
- PDF / 144,946 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 61 Downloads / 162 Views
0909-PP03-10.1
Women in Materials: a Collaborative Effort between Simmons College and the Cornell Center for Materials Research Velda Goldberg1, George G. Malliaras3, Helene Schember4, Michael Kaplan1,2, Leonard Soltzberg2, Richard W. Gurney2, Patrick Johnson1 1 Physics, Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts; 2Chemistry, Simmons College, Boston, MA; 3Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; 4 Cornell Center for Materials Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY ABSTRACT The Women in Materials program, supported by the National Science Foundation, is a collaboration between Simmons College, a predominately undergraduate women’s college, and the Cornell Center for Materials Research. For the past four years, this program has provided unusual curricular and research opportunities for undergraduate women at Simmons College. This program demonstrates a successful model for enhancing undergraduate science and technology preparation through collaboration between primarily undergraduate institutions and NSF-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers. INTRODUCTION The Women in Materials (WIM) program focuses on establishing a collaborative Simmons/Cornell research program that provides opportunities for students to work with faculty on timely research projects and to have access to sophisticated instrumentation. The project also augments the undergraduate experience by using the collaboration to enhance the undergraduate science curriculum and encourage new Ph.D.s in materials-related disciplines to consider academic careers at primarily undergraduate institutions. Model projects of this type continue to be important if we are to increase the numbers of women completing degrees in mathematics, science and engineering. Improvement has been made, but women's participation in the physical sciences, mathematics and engineering still falls substantially below that of males, and the rate of increase over time is very small. In 2001, women earned 61% of all baccalaureate degrees, but only 42% of those in the physical sciences and 20% of those in engineering. This is not a substantial change when compared to 1994 when women earned 55% of the total number of baccalaureate degrees but earned only 35% and 17%, respectively, of the degrees in the physical sciences and engineering [1]. The situation is similar for Ph.D. recipients. In 2001, women represented 25% and 22% of the Ph.D. recipients in the physical sciences and in materials engineering, respectively [2]. Baccalaureate colleges are well positioned to address this need. For when the baccalaureate origins of students who receive advanced degrees are investigated, one finds a disproportionately large number of liberal arts colleges (considering the relatively small numbers of female science graduates compared to those at large universities), and women's liberal arts colleges in particular [3]. However, there are challenges, such as achieving the appropriate balance of research efforts in largely teaching institutions [4]. Additionally,
Data Loading...
