Tech Journalist Kara Swisher’s 2024 Burn Book: A Tech Love Story is an irreverent, humorous, and at times downright frightening memoir that helps drive home the many reasons why we need more women at the highest echelons of STEMM.

Cicero famously asked “who benefits?” to expose interests motivating crimes.  We can pose the same question regarding the motivations that underlie the lack of women’s advancement in STEMM academics.

Eva Åkesson, Professor of Chemical Physics at Lund University (Sweden) and former Rector of Uppsala University, kindly shares some of her observations from working on university policy for generative AI (GenAI) at Lund University. Her candid insights are beneficial for senior women leaders grappling with this challenging issue.

In this post on artificial intelligence (AI), we focus on the ‘Top 10’ things every senior woman leader in academia should know about AI, especially generative AI (GenAI).  We hope that this will help to ensure its wise and ethic use.

In US and UK universities, the job responsibilities of most professors are often grouped into three categories — teaching, research, and service.  In European universities, service is often less explicitly recognized despite its crucial importance for institutions.  Regrettably, service can become a ‘trap’ for women at all levels.  We provide suggestions on how to value and manage service activities, so they serve the university and society without hijacking an academic career.

The Better Science Initiative aims to rethink the notion of academic excellence and promotes best practices for a healthy research culture in which all researchers can thrive.

During the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami disaster, one young girl was able to save at least 100 lives by recognizing the impending cataclysm based on what she had learned in a recent geography class. Her story is a reminder of the power of STEMM education and a testament to strong girls everywhere.

Dr. Karen Kelsky, author of “The Professor Is In”, reflects on the second edition of her career advice book for PhDs and the state of academic career advising more generally.  Her comments are especially timely in the context of the current turmoil confronting American higher education.

Values-based leadership offers a path for engaging both academic colleagues and external stakeholders in the university mission.  

Blog (co)editor Patricia Maurice introduces her new book, “Do Science Like a Girl: how women in science are changing the world.”

Prof. Paul Walton describes his commitment to building diverse research teams and faculties, using evidence and literature as the basis for action.      

Understanding power and its dynamics in STEMM academics can help women leaders to avoid being subjected to abuses of power and to exercise our own power ethically, responsibly, and for the benefit of all.   

In honor of the 50^th post in this blog series, we take a moment to review what we’ve learned thus far and to ponder the evolving role of senior women leaders in STEMM.

There are few aspects of scientific research and teaching more exciting than getting out into ‘the field’. Good leaders need to ensure safe and appropriate behavior whenever faculty, students and staff prepare to step out of the lab and the classroom to explore the broader world.

Michael Pullin, Dean for Academic Initiatives at Queensborough Community College in New York, highlights the importance of community colleges for STEMM education in the U.S. He reminds us of the importance of listening to one another.

In “Watching Over Rwandans,” author Ilene Sheffer describes her efforts to help save students from Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and relates the personal stories of seven Rwandan international students.  Together, their stories remind us of the power of academics to do good in the world.

Favoritism can occur in any workplace.  It can be especially pernicious in STEMM academics, where it undermines meritocratic ideals.  As senior women leaders, we should promote fair and equitable treatment of junior colleagues and guard against the dangers of favoritism.

On a recent trip to Milan, we stumbled upon a street named for 18^th century female scientist Laura Bassi, reminding us that women have been accomplishing extraordinary things in STEMM for hundreds of years.  Too few women have had such an opportunity.

Here, we introduce our readers to ROZ, an interactive career advisory platform that offers a global network of mentors and other tools to help advance scientists’ careers and promote diversity.

At a time when universities (at least in the USA) are under fire, let’s take a moment to remind ourselves how fortunate we are to be educators.