Professor Yu-Ping (Yo) Chin is a friend and colleague of the editors of this blog series, who has been an important ally for women in STEMM. He offers thoughts on his experience as an Asian-American a...

Renowned chemist Catherine Murphy, Department Head at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, talks about the all-important job of being a Department Chair or Head.

Dr. Kathy Anderson, a retired U.S. Air Force Captain with a PhD in computer science, draws upon her personal experiences as a woman in STEMM who has dealt with the challenges of physical and mental il...

For senior women leaders, it is important to take time to observe, to think, and sometimes to relax, unplug and meditate.  

The Daruma symbolizes the Japanese ‘fall down seven times, stand up eight’ philosophy of resilience. Women in STEMM need to be resilient, both individually and collectively.

Theo Baker’s 2026 book “How to Rule the World: An education in power at Stanford University” warns about dubious scientific research and flawed ethics and provides insight into an undergraduate’s ex...

As senior women in STEMM academics, we are proud to be role models for our junior colleagues.  But we should take care to avoid the potential pitfalls of the survivorship bias that pervades acade...

As senior women leaders in STEMM we know we are stronger together — we all benefit when we support one another. But this is also true when we support women outside of STEMM, including women whose path...

The first step for most dual-career academic STEMM couples is to find and negotiate two faculty positions. Here, we focus on this step at institutions in the US and Europe.

Prof. Jen Heemstra’s 2025 book “Labwork to Leadership” is one we wish that we had been able to read when starting out as assistant professors.  Even senior women leaders in STEMM will be able to ...

Tech Journalist Kara Swisher’s 2024 Burn Book: A Tech Love Story is an irreverent, humorous, and at times downright frightening memoir that helps drive home the many reasons why we need more women at ...

Cicero famously asked “who benefits?” to expose interests motivating crimes.  We can pose the same question regarding the motivations that underlie the lack of women’s advancement in STEMM academ...

Eva Åkesson, Professor of Chemical Physics at Lund University (Sweden) and former Rector of Uppsala University, kindly shares some of her observations from working on university policy for generative ...

In this post on artificial intelligence (AI), we focus on the ‘Top 10’ things every senior woman leader in academia should know about AI, especially generative AI (GenAI).  We hope that this will...

In US and UK universities, the job responsibilities of most professors are often grouped into three categories — teaching, research, and service.  In European universities, service is often less ...

The Better Science Initiative aims to rethink the notion of academic excellence and promotes best practices for a healthy research culture in which all researchers can thrive.

During the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami disaster, one young girl was able to save at least 100 lives by recognizing the impending cataclysm based on what she had learned in a recent geography class. Her st...

Dr. Karen Kelsky, author of “The Professor Is In”, reflects on the second edition of her career advice book for PhDs and the state of academic career advising more generally.  Her comments are es...

Values-based leadership offers a path for engaging both academic colleagues and external stakeholders in the university mission.      By Janet G. Hering with Patricia A. Maurice ...

Blog (co)editor Patricia Maurice introduces her new book, “Do Science Like a Girl: how women in science are changing the world.”

Prof. Paul Walton describes his commitment to building diverse research teams and faculties, using evidence and literature as the basis for action.      

Understanding power and its dynamics in STEMM academics can help women leaders to avoid being subjected to abuses of power and to exercise our own power ethically, responsibly, and for the benefit of ...

In honor of the 50 th post in this blog series, we take a moment to review what we’ve learned thus far and to ponder the evolving role of senior women leaders in STEMM.

There are few aspects of scientific research and teaching more exciting than getting out into ‘the field’. Good leaders need to ensure safe and appropriate behavior whenever faculty, students and staf...

Michael Pullin, Dean for Academic Initiatives at Queensborough Community College in New York, highlights the importance of community colleges for STEMM education in the U.S. He reminds us of the impor...

In “Watching Over Rwandans,” author Ilene Sheffer describes her efforts to help save students from Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and relates the personal stories of seven Rwandan international stude...

Favoritism can occur in any workplace.  It can be especially pernicious in STEMM academics, where it undermines meritocratic ideals.  As senior women leaders, we should promote fair and equi...

On a recent trip to Milan, we stumbled upon a street named for 18 th century female scientist Laura Bassi, reminding us that women have been accomplishing extraordinary things in STEMM for hundreds o...

Here, we introduce our readers to ROZ, an interactive career advisory platform that offers a global network of mentors and other tools to help advance scientists’ careers and promote diversity.

At a time when universities (at least in the USA) are under fire, let’s take a moment to remind ourselves how fortunate we are to be educators.

Understanding the dynamics by which leadership emerges, including the relationships within groups, can help us design and choose the leadership training program that best serves our needs.

More than ever, STEMM practitioners are needed to identify and solve problems and to provide the innovation that drives economic growth.  Engagement is crucial to ensuring that colleagues can ‘fl...

Prof. Charmain Levy, an eminent scholar of international development studies, feminist studies and social sciences from the Université du Québec en Outaouais, shares her thoughts on successful strateg...

A departure from ‘science as usual’ would focus on society and community, emphasize interdependence and connection, and promote broader thinking. A new foundation will bring ‘congressive’ STEMM into t...

Prof. Tracy Kijewski-Correa shares her experiences and insight on the important role that academic engineers can play in addressing poverty and the needs of at-risk populations across the globe.

Like any other transition in life, retirement requires good navigation.  Here, we offer some of our own experiences and advice to help you prepare for a smooth and effective retirement.

The withdrawal of funding for humanitarian work will affect everyone – in countries rich or poor – as the “global immune system” built by global aid falls apart.

Authors Roberta Hawkins and Leslie Kern discuss how they came to write their 2024 book Higher Expectations: How to Survive Academia, Make it Better for Others, and Transform the University an d how ...

Are we, as academics, sufficiently willing to engage with our colleagues on issues of ethics and behavior?  As women leaders in STEMM, how does this affect us and what are our responsibilities? &...

Industrialised countries such as Switzerland need to transform their food systems to mitigate their impacts, locally and globally.

During a meeting in Paris last fall, we were inspired to draft A Declaration of the Rights of Women and Girls in STEMM in hopes of building a modern system that uplifts everyone.