AmericanChemicalSociety.com

Co-Organizers:

Timothy M. Swager (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Richard McCullough (Carnegie Mellon University)

Overview of the Conference One of the greatest challenges to the future of the United States is effectively harnessing our nation's diverse human resources in science and engineering. We simply will not be competitive without developing future generations from all social, economic and racial backgrounds. In spite of many programs, there continues to be a disproportionately low engagement of underrepresented minorities in science and engineering. It is recognized that getting people interested in science at a young age is one approach. However, even for those underrepresented minority students who go on to study science, the “pipeline” is leaky from the undergraduate to graduate school and on to the professorate. At every stage the proportion of underrepresented minority students progressing to the next level loses ground relative to the majority. For a more detailed discussion of this problem please see the report from a recent workshop sponsored by NSF, NIH, and DOE (http://chemchairs.uoregon.edu). It is our view that greater representation in the professorship by underrepresented minorities will be transformational and is one of the most effective ways to encourage larger diversity in the future science and engineering workforce. This 2.5 day workshop was designed to increase the competitiveness of graduate students and postdoctorals for assistant professor positions. Funding from the American Chemical Society Peutrolium Research Fund, Dow Chemical Company, Carnegie Mellon University, and MIT Chemistry/Chemical Engineering is greatly appreciated. The expenditures of the meeting including travel, food and lodging totaled $43,000.

Report

The conference was advertised broadly through in excess of 100 e-mails to faculty with interests in organic materials/polymers, defined broadly. The application procedure included the students supplying a CV and statement of their research interests and references. An e-mail of reference from at least one faculty member was received for every student accepted. In total 26 students were accepted and all but one student came to the meeting.

We were assisted in the workshop by a number of mentors and a guest lecture by Professor Robert Langer. We also had lectures by two of our mentors, Professors Paula Hammond and Christine Ortiz. We were also able to engage the help of two Deans from MIT who specialize in diversity issues and MIT's chemistry librarian.

The venue for the conference was MIT's Endicott House, which is a mansion with an elaborate estate and conference facilities. Students enjoyed excellent food and cocktail socials each night. The socials went into the late evenings (after 11PM) and this lead to critical time for the mentors to get to know the students. We succeeded in creating a relaxing and interactive environment that helped to forge lasting relationships between students and also between the students and mentors.

What made this workshop different from others was the focus on a scientific subject. The hope was that we would not only guide students through the strategic social aspects but also help them to develop a scientific agenda. We emphasized the need for careful long term planning. Based upon the research interests of the students, we paired them on the last day with specific mentors. In these smaller break-out sessions we discussed the general features of successful proposals and what will be required in an assistant professor interview. In particular, the oral presentation of research proposals is perhaps the most difficult and stressful aspect of the interview process. Students then presented their ideas either with Powerpoint or using markers and a white board. The mentors and the rest of the group participated in discussions of the merits and pitfalls of the proposed ideas. In many cases we helped the students to identify connections that help to state the significance of the research and to help them to flesh out their ideas.

The outcomes and evaluation of the workshop are critical to future planning and all of the students completed a questionnaire. Overall, they were extremely positive about the workshop. The only negative aspect of the workshop was that they did not feel that the presentation by MIT's librarian on the use of electronic resources was useful and hence, we will not do this in the future. They were extremely complementary of MIT's Deans (Jones and Staton) who conducted a closed-door minority-only session to break the ice with the group. A number of the students viewed this session as a critical element that allowed them to feel comfortable in the workshop.

Based on the success of this workshop we are in the process of planning a second workshop to be held August 9-12, 2009 in Pittsburgh. A number of the mentors have committed to attending and we will also seek new mentors. We are most grateful for the financial support of this workshop. We are confident that we have made a difference in a number of the student's careers.