STEM Fields

Dartmouth College Commits $100 Million to Increase Diversity in STEM Fields

Dartmouth's STEM-X program will focus on student diversity in STEM programs, faculty recruitment, and research and scholarship. The program will include an undergraduate scholarship program with the goal of enhancing STEM participation by students from underrepresented groups. 

Study Finds Black Medical Students Publish Less Scholarly Research Than Their White Peers

In a new study of medical school students, researchers at Yale University found that there were only slight differences between Whites and members of underrepresented groups in research experience. But Black medical school students had 15 percent fewer publications than their White peers.

Southern Methodist University to Combat Bias in Artificial Intelligent Systems

Southern Methodist University in Dallas has established the Intelligent Systems and Bias Examination Lab (ISaBEL). The lab’s mission is to understand how artificial intelligence systems, such as facial recognition algorithms, perform on diverse populations of users. The Lab will examine how existing bias can be mitigated in these systems.

HBCU Students to Participate in Medical Research Program at the University of Pennsylvania

The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is expanding its Penn Access Summer Scholars Program to include students from five historically Black educational institutions. The selective program provides two summers of research for undergraduates with a goal of preparing them to matriculate into medical school.

New Report Shows Diversity Efforts in High-Tech in Academia and the Workforce Have Stalled

Despite comprising 15 percent of the K-12 student population, Blacks make up just 6 percent of students taking advanced placement computer science courses. In 2020, only 8 percent of bachelor's degrees conferred in computer science were earned by Black graduates, a decrease since 2016.

Meharry Medical College to Add a New Ph.D. Program in Biomedical Data Science

Students in the new program, scheduled to begin in August, will take courses in mathematics, computational science, biostatistics, biomedical informatics, biomedical image processing and analysis, artificial intelligence and deep learning, and computer programming.

Huge Racial Disparities Among Medical Residents in Specific Fields

A new report from the Association of American Medical College shows there were slightly more than 7,000 Black or African American medical residents in the 2020-21 year. They made up 5.8 percent of all medical residents. This is less than half of what would be called for if racial parity were to prevail. Many fields had no Black residents at all.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Commits $2 Billion to Diversity Efforts in Biomedical Science

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, has announced a $2 billion commitment to advancing racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in biomedical science. The new initiative will focus on not only promoting diversity but also developing infrastructure needed to sustain increased diversity.

Vanderbilt University’s Renã Robinson Is Leading a National Organization of Black Chemists

Renã A.S. Robinson, associate professor of chemistry and Dorothy J. Wingfield Phillips Chancellor Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, has been named president of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE).

Study Identifies the Whitest Corner of the STEM World

There has been no progress in geoscience Ph.D. degrees in racial and ethnic diversity in 40 years. There has been an increase of racial and ethnic diversity at the bachelor's degree level but most of this is the result of a larger number of Hispanic graduates. Blacks make up just 3 percent of bachelor's degree awards.

Selwyn M. Vickers Is the New President of the American Surgical Association

In 1994, Dr. Vickers joined the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham as an assistant professor in the department of surgery. After serving as an endowed professor at the University of Minnesota from 2006 to 2013, he returned to Alabama to take the position of dean of the medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

A Major Gift Aimed to Address the Huge Racial Gap in STEM Doctoral Programs

Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg Philanthropies have announced the launch of a $150 million effort to directly address historic underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. Five partnering HBCUs will receive funding to build pathways toward doctoral degrees in STEM

Pew Research Center Report Documents Racial Gap in STEM Degree Attainment and Employment

Black students earned 7 percent of STEM bachelor’s degrees as of 2018, the most recent year data is available. This is below their share of all bachelor’s degrees (10 percent) or their share of the adult population (12 percent). Black adults are also underrepresented among those earning advanced degrees in STEM.

Black Students in STEM and Health Graduate Programs Increase But a Large Racial Gap Remains

New data from the National Science Foundation show that in pre-pandemic America enrollments in graduate programs in science, engineering, and health fields at U.S. academic institutions were increasing. The increase in Black enrollments in these disciplines increased faster than the rate for enrollments as a whole.

Academic Disciplines Where African Americans Received Few or No Doctorates in 2019

In 2019 there were 2,512 African Americans who earned doctorates. They made up 7.1 percent of all doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens or permanent residents in the U.S. But there are many fields where Blacks earned only a tiny percentage of all doctorates. For example, African Americans earned only one percent of physics doctorates.

Racial Microaggressions May Be Pushing Black Students Out of STEM Disciplines

The study by researchers at the University of Illinois found when students of color in STEM majors felt excluded, invisible, or isolated on their college campus because of their race, sometimes combined with discouraging experiences in academic settings, they were less likely to continue in STEM.

National Science Foundation Teams Up With Nine Universities to Boost Diversity in STEM Faculty

The alliance will provide underrepresented minority doctoral and postdoctoral students training opportunities to learn and network at partner institutions, conduct research exchange visits, and access resources for placement into faculty positions.

NASA Teams Up With Four HBCUs to Promote Engineering Initiatives

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded 14 planning grants to Minority Serving Institutions through its Minority University Research and Education Project, part of the agency's Office of STEM Engagement. Four of the grant recipients are historically Black universities.

The First African American Woman to Chair a Department at Johns Hopkins Medical School

Namandjé Bumpus was appointed chair of the department of pharmacology and molecular sciences. She is the first African American woman to chair an academic department at the medical school and the only African American woman currently chairing a pharmacology department at any medical school in the nation.

15 HBCUs to Have the Opportunity to Design STEM Teacher Preparation Programs

The National Math and Science Initiative has received a planning grant from the Fund II Foundation to design UTeach STEM teacher preparation programs at up to 15 historically Black colleges and universities in six states and the District of Columbia.
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