We are delighted to announce that the MIT Press will cosponsor Scientista Symposium 2019, an annual conference organized by The Scientista Foundation that brings early-career women in STEM fields together for networking, mentorship, and professional development opportunities.
The Scientista Foundation is a national organization that empowers pre-professional women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through content, communities, and conferences. Currently the largest network of campus women across STEM disciplines, Scientista serves to connect all communities of women in STEM at campuses across the nation, giving such important organizations more visibility and resources, and building a strong, cohesive network of women in science that can act as one voice.
The Press shares Scientista’s commitment to increasing gender representation and providing growth opportunities in STEM disciplines.
“The Press has a long history of publishing books by and about women in science, but we can, and should, do more to encourage women to enter and grow in the STEM fields. We are proud to partner with the Scientista Foundation because they are working to insure that we have a greater diversity of voices present in the research labs, classrooms, and, yes, bookshelves of the future,” says Amy Brand, director of The MIT Press.
The Press will gift each attendee with a copy of The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist by Dr. Ben Barres. Barres was Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at Stanford University and one of the world’s leading researchers on the role of the brain cells known as glia before his death in 2017. In this posthumous memoir, he recounts his life, his gender transition in his forties, and his important scientific work. “By far the main difference I have noticed is that people who don’t know I am transgendered treat me with much more respect: I can even complete a whole sentence without being interrupted by a man,” he writes. Later in life, he took pride in mentoring younger scientists and became an advocate for gender equality in science.
Scientista Symposium 2019, with a theme of “Science without Borders,” will take place March 29–31 at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center (77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115). For more information about the Symposium: http://scisymp19.weebly.com/
Media contact: Jessica Pellien, pellien@mit.edu