The second International Women Scientist Meeting was held on 16th and 17th of June, 2015 at the Ruhr-University in Bochum. The Meeting was organized by the International Female Faculty founded by RESOLV in collaboration with the NCCR MUST Network. More information on NCCR MUST can be found here.

We had the pleasure to welcome five international speakers from the US National Science Foundation, the National Academies, USA, DexLeChem, a start-up company in Berlin, and the Department of Chemical Engineering, Pittsburg University at the meeting. Professors Martina Havenith (Director RESOLV) and Ursula Keller (Director NCCR MUST) gave presentations about the female network in both clusters. Please find the program here and more information about the speakers and their talks below.

Lynnette Madsen presented the strategies of successful women in science. Erik Svedberg proposed mechanisms to increase the number of females and minorities in the selection of board members. Carol Bessel discussed the mechanisms of prejudice against women and minorities and how to overcome these. Sonja Jost provided insight into the process of founding of a start-up company and the obstacles she had to overcome. The lecture program was rounded off by a science talk from Judith Yang.

All talks were followed by intense discussions. Successful strategies to continue a scientific career during maternity leave and the resistance of even female colleagues against support for women were addressed during the discussions. The speakers provided detailed insight into the academic system of the USA and prepared the ground for discussions about the differences between the US and the German academic system.

During networking lunches and dinner on Tuesday, the participants enjoyed the opportunities for scientific as well as personal exchange. The meeting finished with active discussions at the Science Café and guided lab tours on Wednesday afternoon. Please find more information about the Science Café and the lab tours below.

We appreciated to welcome 10 participants from the NCCR MUST cluster, 15 women from RESOLV and 13 guests from the local institutes at the International Women Scientist Meeting in Beckmanns Hof. Three children of participants of the meeting enjoyed the two days of the meeting with the (male and female) day care staff from the Ruhr-University Bochum.

Some impressions of the meeting are shown below (images courtesy of Dr. Nina Winter).

LIST OF SPEAKERS

• Dr. Carol Bessel, Deputy Division Director, Division of Chemistry, US National Science Foundation
  "Efforts to Improve Diversity: Examples from the US National Science Foundation’s Division of Chemistry"
• Prof. Dr. Martina Havenith, Director of RESOLV, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
  "Introduction to RESOLV"
• Dipl.-Ing. Sonja Jost, CEO and head of R&D of DexLeChem, Berlin, Germany
  "Making a spin-off from university: a way to implement scientific innovations into industry"
• Prof. Dr. Ursula Keller, Director of NCCR MUST, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
  "NCCR MUST and the ETH Women Professors Forum"
• Dr. Lynnette D. Madsen
  "The Keys to Success for Women in Materials Research"
• Dr. Erik B. Svedberg, Senior Program Officer, The National Academies, National Materials and Manufacturing Board, USA
  "Gender Equity at Work in the National Academies"
• Prof. Dr. Judith Yang, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pittsburg University, USA
  "Structural Dynamics of Surface Reactions: Oxidation and Heterogeneous Catalysis"

DISCUSSION GROUPS AT SCIENCE CAFÉ

• Progress in STEM* Diversity, Why Still So Slow?
  *Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
  Moderation: Dr. Carol Bessel
• Building an own company – is it really THAT difficult as it sounds?
  Moderation: Dipl.-Ing. Sonja Jost
• Succeeding in Academia
  Moderation: Dr. Lynnette D. Madsen
• What comes after NANO? Bridging the gap between the atomic and macroscopic world.
  Moderation: Prof. Dr. Beatriz Roldan Cuenya
• Pro Bono Work in the Name of Science
  Moderation: Dr. Erik B. Svedberg
• Academia in the US
  Moderation: Prof. Dr. Judith Yang

GUIDED LAB TOURS

• Chair of Physical Chemistry II
  Prof. Dr. Martina Havenith
• Chair of Physical Chemistry I
  Prof. Dr. Karina Morgenstern
• Chair of Technical Chemistry
  Prof. Dr. Martin Muhler
• Institute for Experimental Physics IV
  Prof. Dr. Beatriz Roldan