SU Advance will present Joan Bennett of Rutgers University in its next Conversations on Equity and Excellence series on Friday, Oct. 18, at 10 a.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons, 114 Bird Library.
Joan Bennett
Bennett’s talk, “Science, Sex Chromosomes and Success,” is free and open to the public.
There is general agreement that a strong science and engineering enterprise is essential for countries to meet the challenges of the 21st century and keep their economies innovative and prosperous. Women are half the population, but still remain below parity with men in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Despite efforts to change that, differential participation remains rooted in cultural history, gender stereotypes and unconscious bias.
Bennett will offer data on women in STEM fields, discuss current thoughts about the continuing underrepresentation of women and describe programs that seek to redress the imbalance.
Bennett is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and professor in the Department of plant biology and pathology at Rutgers University. She also serves as associate vice president for Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics.
She is a past editor-in-chief of Mycologia, a past vice president of the British Mycological Society and the International Union of Microbiological Sciences, and past president of the American Society for Microbiology and the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.
For more information, visit or email icc@syr.edu.
