Joining the ranks of more than 60 institutions and graduate programmes across the United States, the biological sciences division of the University of Chicago in Illinois has cut a standard test from its graduate admissions requirements. The decision aims to boost the likelihood of admission for minority and female applicants by levelling the playing field. Read more
Just 34 of leading universities named in this year’s annual Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings have female presidents, down 1% from the 36 that were led by women in 2017. Read more
More than 40% of respondents to the voluntary survey had anxiety scores in the moderate to severe range, and nearly 40% of respondents showed signs of moderate to severe depression. Both rates were more than six times greater than those found in the general public using the same standardized questionnaires. Read more
Calisi, a behavioural neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis, and a group of 45 other scientist-parents, have turned their frustrations into a call for action. In a paper published online Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers detail the shortcomings of past conferences and offer a blueprint for making conferences more welcoming and accessible to parents of young children. Read more
Caroline Weinberg, an organizer for the upcoming march in Washington DC, expects smaller crowds than last year, although she admits her prediction may again be off the mark. “Last we expected 40,000 people, and we got around 100,000,” she says. She adds that most of the marchers in the nation’s capital city were concerned citizens, not practicing researchers. Read more
Young scientists are sometimes asked to explain their science to the public as if they were talking to a grandparent. For me, that meant boiling down my studies in DNA structure to reach my grandmother, who has a 4th-grade education and Spanish as her first language. The challenge of demystifying my science was daunting. Read more
One study suggests that the concept of “brilliance” in science might discourage some women from following certain career paths or education opportunities. Another found that women are more likely than men to offer “honorary authorships” to scientists who may not or do not deserve it—a courtesy that might obscure the magnitude of their own contributions. Read more
No-one could fail to be moved by the video shared this week of a schoolboy crying over bullying. As adults we hope that we’ve moved away from school bullies. But in academia it seems that bullying is a persistent problem, with up to 42% of academics reporting some form of workplace bullying. In adult life, bullies rarely steal our lunch money or gum our hair. But they do steal our self-confidence, make us feel inadequate and question our work. My own experience with bullying has taught me how to recognise it, and what to do to overcome it in the workplace. Read more
Female candidates’ – but not male candidates’ — relationship status was a primary consideration in hiring committees’ discussions and decisions, according to study co-author Lauren Rivera, an associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She found that committee members assumed that heterosexual female candidates whose partners or husbands held academic or high-status jobs could not relocate for the job, and excluded them from offers when the committee had viable male or unpartnered female options. Yet, she says, committees — whose members included women — rarely discussed male applicants’ relationship status and assumed that those candidates’ partners or wives would be able to move for the position if an offer were made. Read more
Naturejobs is the world’s leading dedicated science jobs board. The Naturejobs blog aims to be the leading online resource for scientists in academia and industry who seek guidance in developing their careers. The blog delivers a mix of expert advice and personal stories to help readers review, set and achieve their career goals. We like to interact with our readers – we want to know what you want to know. Please share your thoughts in the comments section and get in touch if you have content suggestions. Pitches for guest posts are encouraged and should be emailed to the editor Jack Leeming at naturejobseditor [at] nature.com
NEW from Naturejobs, the Naturejobs Careers Community, an open forum for the sharing of expert advice and opinion on developing a career in science. Join today to network, learn and raise your profile to further your career.
Recent comments on this blog
African astronomy and how one student broke into the field
From Doctorate to Data Science: A very short guide
Work/life balance: New definitions