Thursday, May 14, 2015

Time to boycott Oxford Global meetings due to blatant sexism

I don't even know what to say or do about this it is so stunningly pathetic.  I saw this Tweet earlier in the day:

I figured even in an era of blatant sexism in science, this must be a mistake right?  How could there be a conference with 38 male speakers and 0 female speakers.  So I went to the site: Who is Speaking – Oxford Global's 13th Pharmaceutical IT Congress, September 2015.  And, well, as far as I can tell Elisabeth Bik has the numbers right.  (See a list at the end of this post).  They even have a running slideshow of the speakers faces.

This is even worse than the 25:1 ratio of the qBio meeting I lost it over a few years ago.  I have never seen anything like this. I note - a 38:0 ratio is nearly impossible by chance in any field and I think pretty clearly an indication of massive bias of some kind.

I note - this is not the first case of a mostly male meeting from Oxford Global.  See for example:
Oxford Global Sequencing Meetings: Where MEN Tell You About Sequencing #YAMMM

I think it is time to just boycott meetings meetings from Oxford Global.  The only way they will change is if people stop speaking at or going to their meetings.  So please - stop going to their meetings.  Stop speaking at their meetings.


Speakers 2015:

  • Sebastien Lefebvre 
    Director Data Engineering and Technology – Global Data Office, Biogen Idec
  • Uwe Barlage
    EDC Project Leader, Bayer Healthcare
  • Marc Berger
    Vice President, Real World Data and Analytics, Pfizer
  • Michael Braxenthaler
    Pharma Research and Early Development Informatics, Global Head Strategic Alliances, Roche, & President, Pistoia Alliance
  • Arnaub Chatterjee
    Associate Director - Data Science, Insights and Partnerships, Merck
  • James Connelly
    Global Head, Research Data Management, Sanofi
  • Jos Echelpoels
    Director IT, Regional Initiatives, Janssen
  • Brian Ellerman
    ‎Head of Technology Scouting and Information Science Innovation, Sanofi
  • Peter Elsig Raun
    Director & Head Business Analysis, Lundbeck
  • Dimitrios Georgiopoulos
    Chief Scientific Officer UK, Novartis
  • Charles Gerrits
    Vice President, Innovative Patient-Centric Endpoints and Solutions, Sanofi
  • Yike Guo
    Professor of Computing Science, Imperial College London and Chief Technology Officer, tranSMART Foundation
  • Sergio H. Rotstein
    Director, Research Business Technology, Pfizer
  • Juergen Hammer
    Global Head Data Science, Center Head Pharma Research and Early Development Informatics, Roche
  • Jan Hauss
    Head Central Analytics Informatics, Merck
  • Athula Herath
    Statistical Director, Translational Sciences, MedImmune
  • Nigel Hughes
    Director Integrative Healthcare Informatics, Janssen Research and Development
  • Michael Hvalsøe Brinkløv
    BI Architect, IT Platforms & Infrastructure, Lundbeck
  • Robert J. Boland
    Senior Manager, Translational Informatics & External Innovation R&D IT, Janssen
  • Adrian Jones
    Associate Director, Business Intelligence Systems, Astellas
  • Srivatsan Krishnan
    Director and Head of R&D Operations and IT, Bristol-Myers Squibb
  • Philippe Marc
    Global Head of Preclinical Informatics, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research
  • Dermot McCaul
    Director, Preclinical Development and Biologics IT, Merck
  • Pantaleo Nacci
    Head Statistical Safety & Epidemiology/PV, Novartis Vaccine and Diagnostics Srl (a GSK company)
  • Gerhard Noelken
    Global Business IT Lead for Pharmaceutical Science, Pfizer WRD
  • Emmanuel Pham
    VP Biométrie, Ipsen 
  • Andrew Porter
    Director, Enterprise Architecture, Merck
  • Gabriele Ricci
    Vice President of TechOpps IT, Shire
  • Anthony Rowe
    Director, Translational Informatics and External Innovation, Johnson & Johnson
  • Martin Ryzl
    Director, GIC Analytics Platform Engineering, Merck
  • Wolfgang Seemann
    Senior Project Manager, Bayer Business Services
  • Aziz Sheikh
    Professor of Primary Care Research & Development and Co-Director Center for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh
  • Yan Song
    Associate Director, Bioanalysis Operations, AbbVie
  • Devry Spreitzer
    Director, Global Electronic Systems Quality Assurance, Astellas
  • Jason Swift
    Head R&D Information UK, AstraZeneca
  • Kevin Teburi
    Director – iMed Team Leader, R&D Information, AstraZeneca
  • Simon Thornber
    Director, Data Analytics, Informatics and Innovation, GlaxoSmithKline
  • Tjeerd Van Staa
    Professor of Health eResearch, University of Manchester

Some past meetings from Oxford Global to consider
http://www.bmsystems.net/download/BioMarkers-BMsystems-conferenceprogramme.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20120514151415/http://www.ngsasia-congress.com/


1 comment:

  1. I don’t think that you should take this in this context. Though I am a small time event planner but I have organized meetings where meeting room was full of males only. It’s not something new in my opinion as I get to face it every other day.

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