The goal: to close the large gap that exists today between the number of women and men in the senior academic ranks
The Weizmann Institute of Science is currently launching a new program designed to encourage and help women choose a scientific career in the fields of natural sciences (physics, chemistry and life sciences), and the exact sciences (mathematics and computer science). The goal: to close the large gap that exists today between the number of women and men in the senior academic ranks.
The number of women studying at universities and completing advanced degrees (master's and third degrees) is very close to the number of men in these tracks. But only a few of them climb the high academic promotion tracks, and their rate among the senior academic staff is extremely low. This is a global phenomenon.
The Weizmann Institute of Science is currently initiating a national activity to support outstanding female scientists. To this end, the program for the advancement of women in science was founded with the funding of the Claure Foundation and Donald Sussman. As part of this program, the institute will award grants for post-doctoral research in the name of Sarah Lee Schopf to ten young women scientists who have completed PhD studies in natural sciences and exact sciences, at any academic institution in Israel, and have been accepted for post-doctoral research abroad. The grants, with an average annual amount of twenty thousand dollars per female scientist, will be an addition to the scholarship they will receive from an official institutional source or from the research laboratory, and will help the young female scientists go abroad with their families.
Bottleneck
The decision to go on a research period abroad was identified as the bottleneck, where many women give up on continuing their academic career, and turn in other directions. This is a critical step in the path of a scientist's professional training, which contributes to his independence and exposure to the global scientific community, and allows him to prove himself. Various reasons, personal, family and economic, prevent many women from going abroad for several years, and as a result the number of women candidates for the promotion tracks in the academy is small, compared to the number of men.
The grant program for post-doctoral research named after Sarah Lee Schopf, within the Weizmann Institute of Science's program for the advancement of women in science, funded by the Claure and Donald Sussman Foundation, aims to change this reality. As part of the program, the Weizmann Institute will award special grants that will enable many outstanding women to undertake post-doctoral research at leading research institutions abroad. The grant will provide an incentive (financial, but also social and professional) because it will make it easier for women, especially married women and mothers of small children, to finance the stay abroad for the two years of training. The program is intended for women who see their future in developing a scientific career in Israel, with the intention of creating female leadership in Israeli research institutions.
The Weizmann Institute of Science is currently inviting women who have completed doctoral studies in science, at all Israeli universities, to submit their applications for receiving the grant. A special committee of the institute, headed by the adviser to the president of the Weizmann Institute for the Advancement of Women in Science, Prof. Hadassah Degani, will sort and select the 10 women who will be awarded the scholarships, which will be awarded to them in the month of Tishri, 2007 (October XNUMX).
