Features
García-Garibay (seated) with graduate and postdoctoral researchers in his UCLA laboratory.
DIVERSITY
Number of chemistry professors from underrepresented groups remains stagnant, survey shows ANDREA WIDENER, C&EN WASHINGTON
W
hen Miguel García-Garibay came to the University of California, Los Angeles, 25 years ago, he was one of just a handful of Hispanic professors in top U.S. chemistry departments. And that hasn’t changed.
“Over a quarter of a century I haven’t seen a significant increase in the number of Hispanic and Latino scientists in topranked institutions,” he says. “I think we know each other by name.” García-Garibay’s experience is reflected in the most recent survey of chemistry faculty at the 50 U.S. universities with the most federal research funding. The survey, conducted by the Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE), shows just 4.9% of chemistry faculty nationwide are from underrepresented minority groups. That number has barely moved since OXIDE began surveying diversity in chemistry departments five years ago. “I think there has been very, very marginal progress,” says García-Garibay, who is also dean of UCLA’s division
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | NOVEMBER 6, 2017
of physical sciences. Rigoberto Hernandez, OXIDE’s director, says the slow progress shows the need for continued work to improve the percentage of minority faculty in chemistry. “What are the barriers that have led to that underrepresentation, and what can we, as a community, do to offset those barriers?” asks Hernandez, who is also the Gompf Family Chemistry Professor at Johns Hopkins University. OXIDE is designed to identify and better understand those barriers by monitoring diversity among women and underrepresented minorities in top chemistry departments. It also brings department chairs together to explore ways the community can both recruit more chemistry faculty and help them succeed. The effort is cofunded by the National Science Foun-
dation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy. OXIDE’s most recent survey, of the 2015–16 academic year, looks at how individual institutions and the community as a whole are faring. Among universities, Georgia Tech continues to be at the top in hiring minority chemistry faculty. But almost all the other top players have turned over since C&EN last reported OXIDE’s minority faculty data, in 2015. That shows how volatile the numbers are, explains Dontarie Stallings, research and program manager for OXIDE. A single professor can take a school from the middle of the pack to the top—or push an institution from the middle to the bottom. “The numbers are so small; that’s the real story,” he says. Individual minority groups have not seen much growth since the OXIDE surveys began, either, with the 2015–16 numbers reflecting almost no growth since previous years. African Americans made up just 1.6% of faculty in 2015–16, and Hispanics, Latinos, and Latinas just 2.8%. Native Americans and multiracial faculty are both at less than 1%. And those who do get hired may have a difficult time moving up the ranks. According to the OXIDE data, the percentage of
C R E D I T: P E NN Y JE N NI N GS
Few gains for minority faculty
Minority faculty at top 50 U.S. schools Georgia Tech continues to lead in the overall percentage of underrepresented minority professors in chemistry. INSTITUTION Akron, U of Arizona State U Arizona, U of Buffalo, U at California Inst. of Tech. California, U of, Berkeley California, U of, Davis California, U of, Irvine California, U of, Los Angeles California, U of, San Diego California, U of, San Franciscoa Chicago, U of Colorado, U of, Bouldera Cornell U (Ithaca) Emory U Florida State U (Tallahassee) Florida, U of Georgia Inst. of Tech. (Atlanta) Harvard U Illinois, U of, Urbana-Champaign Indiana U, Bloomington Johns Hopkins Ub Kansas, U of Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Massachusetts, U of, Amherst Michigan, U of, Ann Arbor Minnesota, U of, Twin Cities North Carolina, U of, Chapel Hill Northeastern Uc Northwestern Ua Notre Dame, U of Ohio State U (Columbus) Oregon, U of Pennsylvania State U (Univ. Park) Pittsburgh, U of Princeton U Purdue U, West Lafayette Rice U Rutgers U, New Brunswick Southern California, U of Southern Mississippi, U of Stanford U Stony Brook U Texas A&M U, College Station Texas, U of, Austin Utah, U of Vanderbilt U Washington, U of, Seattle Wisconsin, U of, Madison Yale U TOTAL
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR TOTAL % URM 6 0.0% 13 7.7 7 0.0 8 12.5 3 0.0 8 0.0 10 10.0 7 0.0 6 33.3 11 18.2 na na 6 0.0 na na 7 0.0 5 20.0 6 16.7 3 0.0 4 0.0 1 0.0 8 12.5 5 0.0 5 0.0 4 0.0 8 0.0 5 0.0 10 10.0 5 0.0 11 0.0 na na na na 4 0.0 11 27.3 3 0.0 6 0.0 9 11.1 5 0.0 8 12.5 1 0.0 2 0.0 8 12.5 5 0.0 6 0.0 9 0.0 5 0.0 5 60.0 8 12.5 3 33.3 14 7.1 5 0.0 6 0.0 295
7.8
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR TOTAL % URM 1 0.0% 9 11.1 8 12.5 3 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.0 5 0.0 8 0.0 4 25.0 13 15.4 na na 0 0.0 na na 4 0.0 5 0.0 7 0.0 12 8.3 8 25.0 1 0.0 1 0.0 8 0.0 4 0.0 9 0.0 2 0.0 3 0.0 6 16.7 7 0.0 5 0.0 na na na na 8 0.0 7 0.0 6 0.0 9 0.0 8 0.0 2 0.0 11 9.1 6 16.7 4 25.0 8 0.0 3 0.0 4 25.0 0.0 6 6 0.0 3 0.0 3 0.0 1 0.0 3 0.0 4 0.0 0 0.0 236
5.5
FULL PROFESSOR TOTAL % URM 8 0.0% 30 6.6 23 8.8 18 5.6 36 2.8 35 2.9 30 6.7 32 3.1 36 2.8 26 3.9 na na 22 0.0 na na 21 9.5 14 0.0 19 0.0 19 5.3 21 14.3 17 11.8 26 0.0 21 0.0 12 0.0 13 7.7 20 0.0 14 7.1 23 4.4 28 3.6 25 0.0 na na na na 26 3.9 31 6.5 16 0.0 20 5.0 16 0.0 18 5.6 26 0.0 16 6.3 30 6.7 21 0.0 2 50.0 15 6.7 21 9.5 31 3.2 21 0.0 23 4.4 15 0.0 22 0.0 28 0.0 19 5.3
ALL FACULTY TOTAL % URM 15 0.0% 52 7.7 38 7.9 29 6.9 39 2.6 44 2.3 45 6.7 47 2.1 46 8.7 50 10.0 na na 28 0.0 na na 32 6.3 24 4.2 32 3.1 34 5.9 33 15.2 19 10.5 35 2.9 34 0.0 21 0.0 26 3.9 30 0.0 22 4.5 39 7.7 40 2.5 41 0.0 25 5.7 na na 38 2.6 49 10.2 25 0.0 35 2.9 33 3.0 25 4.0 45 4.4 23 8.7 36 8.3 37 2.7 10 10.0 25 8.0 36 5.6 42 2.4 29 10.3 34 5.9 19 5.3 39 2.6 37 0.0 25 4.0
1,006
1,562
3.88
4.9
Note: Tenured and tenure-track faculty at the 50 schools identified by the National Science Foundation as having spent the most on chemistry research in fiscal 2014. For schools whose NSF ranking is based on multiple campuses, faculty numbers are for the campuses listed in parentheses. Underrepresented minorities (URM) include African American, Hispanic/Latino/Latina, Native American, and multiracial. URM calculations exclude multiracial individuals listed as white/Asian because they are not considered underrepresented. a Did not reply to requests for information. b Top 50 ranking includes the Applied Physics Laboratory. c Provided total numbers but not disaggregated data. na not available. Source: OXIDE survey NOVEMBER 6, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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Minorities in academia The percentage of underrepresented minority chemistry faculty is far behind that of chemistry doctoral degree recipients and the population as a whole. % URM Chemistry professors at top 50 schoolsa
AFRICAN AMERICAN
ASIAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER
HISPANIC/LATINO/ LATINA
NATIVE AMERICAN
MULTIRACIAL
WHITE, NONHISPANIC
1.6%
14.8%
2.8%
