October 3, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) a five-year, $3.5 million ADVANCE grant to develop innovative methods to retain and increase the number of female faculty in the fields of science and engineering at the university.

“We have three areas of emphasis — creating awareness, improving recruitment of women into academia and educating women faculty on what they need for success, ” said Jeannette Doeller, Ph.D., principal investigator on the grant.

UAB’s initiatives will include creating five professorships for junior female faculty members, funding three ADVANCE chairs for senior women faculty members and supporting a visiting scholars program to highlight the accomplishments of women scientists and engineers.

In addition, UAB will create a new office for the advancement of women in science and engineering, which will provide information and resources about career development. This office also will support the recruitment of new female faculty by assessing recruitment strategies and the composition of search committees.

“We will also offer workshops on mentoring, leadership, grant writing and other topics,” Doeller said. “We will work closely with other ADVANCE institutions in the country — including Georgia Tech, the University of California, Irvine, University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Colorado, Boulder — to share information and strategies to enhance everyone’s efforts and outcomes. For example, we can share through linked Web sites, annual meetings and listservs, best practices in areas such as faculty recruitment, issue awareness training and faculty surveys.”

The grant is part of a nationwide effort by the NSF to diversify the science and engineering work force. Nationally, though women earn 40 percent of all doctoral degrees in the United States, they make up only 22 percent of the science and engineering workforce and less than 20 percent of the science and engineering faculty in four-year colleges and universities. At UAB, 43 percent of junior science and engineering faculty are women, and 17 percent of senior faculty in the sciences and engineering are women.

“Though UAB is above the national average in terms of female faculty members in engineering and the sciences, we must make further strides in advancing UAB as a first choice for faculty and students,” said acting UAB Provost Eli Capilouto. “Our aim is to make the programs we implement through the ADVANCE program a model that can be used by other institutions throughout the nation.”