What Works for Women in Undergraduate Physics?

The predominance of men in physics remains a puzzle. To attract talented women and minorities, the culture of college physics needs a makeover. In 1998, women received about 40% of the bachelor\u27s degrees in mathematics and chemistry, but only 19% of the bachelor\u27s in physics. That underrepresentation worsens at higher levels: The same year, women constituted 13% of physics PhD recipients and 8% of physics faculty members.(1) According to NSF, the community of working PhD-level physicists in 2000 was 84% white and 93% male.(2) What accounts for such stark numbers

Diversity in Academic Biomedicine: An Evaluation of Education and Career Outcomes with Implications for Policy

Currently, the U.S. population is undergoing major racial and ethnic demographic shifts that could affect the pool of individuals interested in pursuing a career in biomedical research. To achieve its mission of improving health, the National Institutes of Health must recruit and train outstanding individuals for the biomedical workforce. In this study, we examined the educational transition rates in the biomedical sciences by gender, race, and ethnicity, from high school to academic career outcomes. Using a number of educational databases, we investigated gender and racial/ethnic representation at typical educational and career milestones en route to faculty careers in biomedicine. We then employed multivariate regression methods to examine faculty career outcomes, using the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Doctorate Recipients. We find that while transitions between milestones are distinctive by gender and race/ethnicity, the transitions between high school and college and between college and graduate school are critical points at which underrepresented minorities are lost from the biomedical pipeline, suggesting some specific targets for policy intervention

Two-Stage Total Sacrectomy

Latin for “sacred bone” and so named for its recurrent role in ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology [1], the os sacrum remains the subject of much discourse and scholarship in modern-day musculoskeletal oncology. The treatment of sacral tumors demands attention to the complex interplay of anatomic, biomechanical, and oncologic considerations. However, with meticulous preoperative planning and input from a specialized multidisciplinary team, good functional and oncologic results can be obtained in the surgical management of these tumors

Āwhina Revolution: A Bayesian Analysis of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Completion Rates from a Program for Māori and Pacific Success in STEM Disciplines

Māori and Pacific students generally do not attain the same levels of tertiary success as New Zealanders of European descent, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. Te Rōpū Āwhina (Āwhina), an equity initiative at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand between 1999 and 2015, aimed to produce Māori and Pacific professionals in STEM disciplines who contribute to Māori and Pacific community development and leadership. A hierarchical Bayesian approach was used to estimate posterior standardized completion rates for 3-year undergraduate and 2-year postgraduate degrees undertaken by non-Māori-Pacific and Māori-Pacific students. Results were consistent with an Āwhina effect, that is, Āwhina's positive influence on (combined) Māori and Pacific success