MIT Provost Joel Moses and University of Washington Professor Gretchen Kalonji have announced a collaboration on a national program to advance the careers of women and minorities in science and engineering.
Centered at MIT, the program will focus on graduate students, postdoctoral students and current faculty members, and will be dedicated to helping women and minorities be successful as faculty members at colleges and universities. The program will have the active support of the Provost and the Deans of Science, Engineering and Graduate Education. Professor Kalonji will chair the program's Advisory Board. In terms of financial support, MIT has committed to provide a minimum of $50,000 a year for five years to the program.
The program is the culmination of discussions between MIT and Professor Kalonji over her concerns about the climate for women and minorities, both at the Institute and nationwide. The creation of the program is, furthermore, a key element of the resolution of her lawsuit against MIT on the grounds of gender discrimination, which has been withdrawn. Professor Kalonji and Provost Moses concur that this new program offers a mechanism for Professor Kalonji and MIT to work constructively on improving opportunities for young faculty in the future.
The membership of the Advisory Board is as follows:
Lida K. Barrett, Professor of Mathematical Sciences, US Military Academy
Keith V. Bevans, MS '96, electrical engineering and computer science, MIT
Rafael L. Bras, Department Head, Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT
Phillip L. Clay, Associate Provost, MIT
Denice Denton, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisc.
Professor Herman Feshbach, MIT professor of physics emeritus and Institute Professor emeritus
Norman L. Fortenberry, Executive Director, The GEM Consortium
Antonio A. Garcia, Associate Professor, Chemical and Bio Engineering, Arizona State University
John Hopps, Provost, Morehouse College
Judy F. ("J.J.") Jackson, program administrator, MIT Provost's Office
Gretchen Kalonji (chair), Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington
Manyalibo J. Matthews, PhD candidate, MIT
Carolyn W. Meyers, Dean, College of Engineering, North Carolina A&T
Anne Skaja Robinson, postdoctoral associate, biology, MIT
Leigh H. Royden, Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on July 24, 1996.
