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Addressing the leaky pipeline through mentoring and support: a personal perspective

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Materials research is poised to play a pivotal role in addressing the grand challenges faced by society, from engineering better medicines to providing accessible clean water and renewable energy. However, complex problems require diverse teams. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address the diversity gap in materials science and engineering, especially for women.

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Fig. 1: Addressing the leaky pipeline.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks those who have inspired and informed this Comment, including helpful discussions with J. Enszer, who is leading a number of relevant activities at University of Delaware related to student mentoring and teaching students how to learn, M. Sullivan, C. Kloxin, C. Grimes, C. Fromen and D. Konkolewicz; the ‘effective teaching: a workshop’ led by R. Felder and R. Brent (https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/stem-resources/legacy-site/); and the Rosalind Franklin Society, including N. Emanuel for her presentation at the 2018 Annual Board meeting related to the gender gap and elements of her working paper entitled Why do women earn less than men? Evidence from bus and train operators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    April M. Kloxin

  2. Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    April M. Kloxin

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  1. April M. Kloxin
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Correspondence to April M. Kloxin.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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RELATED LINKS:

ACS: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/membership-and-networks/acs/welcoming/industry/networking.html

ACS Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Outstanding Young Investigator Symposium: https://pmsedivision.org/pmse-young-investigator/

AIChE: https://www.aiche.org/resources/careers/networking-opportunities

AIChE Materials Engineering & Sciences Division (MESD) Biomaterials Future Faculty session: https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2018/meetingapp.cgi/Session/38607

Care: www.care.com

Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence: https://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/DRCB/IDeA/pages/COBRE.aspx

Chemical Engineering Summer School: http://www.chesummerschool.org/; http://ched.asee.org/summer-school/

Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Program: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/gaann/index.html

Impostor syndrome: http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2008/02/no-youre-not-impostor

LearnChemE initiative: http://www.learncheme.com/

MRS: https://www.mrs.org/

National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity: https://www.facultydiversity.org/

National Effective Teaching Institute: https://www.asee.org/education-careers/continuing-education/courses-and-workshops/neti

National Institute of Health (NIH) Chemistry–Biology Program: https://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/InstPredoc/Pages/PredocDesc-Chemistry.aspx

National Science Foundation (NSF), Science & Engineering Indicators, 2016: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2016/nsb20161/#/

NIH K99/R00: https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/career-development/k99-r00

NSF CAREER program Career-Life Balance Supplement: https://www.nsf.gov/career-life-balance/

NSF Chemistry Early Career Investigator Workshop: https://blogs.miamioh.edu/early-career-investigator-workshop/

NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program: http://www.igert.org/

NSF-funded Future Faculty Workshop: https://sites.udel.edu/future-faculty-workshop/

Pew Scholars in Biomedical Science: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/pew-biomedical-scholars

Women’s Initiative Committee (WIC) workshops and networking events: https://www.aiche.org/community/sites/committees/women-in-chemical-engineering

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Kloxin, A.M. Addressing the leaky pipeline through mentoring and support: a personal perspective. Nat Rev Mater 4, 287–289 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-019-0109-0

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