Our subject today might seem unrelated to diversity in science and engineering. But have some patience and let us make the case. We learned about the new career path of professional drug testers, called “guinea pigs”, in a fascinating New Yorker article last month by Carl Elliott (the January 7, 2008 issue; the article isn’t available [...]
Recently we were looking through the awards that are given out each year at the major annual scientific conference in our field. Almost none of them were given to women in the past few years - except for the special prize that must be given to a woman. It made us wonder how widespread this [...]
It’s that time of year again: the time when our ambivalence about Black History Month comes into full view. Yes, we agree that black Americans need more of their histories to be told. But we worry that this special month gives Americans another excuse to ignore black people for the rest of the year. And [...]