The Tree of Life: UC Davis Storer Lecture series - since 1963 87% of speakers are male

I wrote this blog post a while ago but never published it partly out of fear for upsetting some of my colleagues. I try to be brave about such things, but I guess I just did not quite get up the poxy. Well, today something came up that stimulated me to write the post.

I got an email announcement for a talk that seems potentially quite interesting. The problem is not the talk. The problem is with the endowed Lectureship that this talk is connected to. So here is the post I have worked on on and off over the last year or more.

UC Davis has an endowed lecture series- the Storer Lectureship in the Life Sciences. It has been running since the 1960s and is a relatively big deal on campus here. The speakers come in, usually give one or two talks (one for the public and one for researchers). They usually have a big dinner (I have gone to a few of these) and the speakers get a decent honorarium (a few thousand dollars) and some sort of gift.

Most years I have been here, I have received a request from the organizers for suggested speakers and every once in a while I have made suggestions, some of which have even led to invitations. Recently, I had suggested a famous colleague who is also a UC Davis alum. Alas, she could not come. The organizers asked if I had any other suggestions and I sent them a list of a few candidates who are both very good, well known and do something related to microbes. The organizers really liked one of the suggestions and asked if I would be willing to invite this person.

So I started drafting a letter. And as part of drafting a letter I wanted to give examples of past speakers to show how great a set of speakers we had for this series. So I Googled "Storer" and
UC Davis" or something like that and got to the page:

Storer Lectureship in the Life Sciences

And that is when I got a bit heartbroken. The speakers have been, well, very male. I note I spent a while looking at descriptions of each speaker that I did not know to try and determine their gender, looking at their web sites if available, or how they were described (e.g., what pronouns were used). I am pretty confident in the assignments though I realize this is an error prone approach. Here is the full list as far as I have put together with the males labelled in yellow and females in green.

Oct 5-16, 1963	Ernest W. Caspari	University of Rochester
Oct 17-31, 1966	Vincent G. Derhicr	Univesity of Pennsylvania
May 7-20, 1967	Ernst Mayr	Harvard University
Nov 3-15, 1968	Elizabeth C. Crosby	Univesity of Michigan
Jan 3-15, 1969	W.D. Billings	Duke University
Apr 13-23, 1969	Frank Fenner	Australian National University,
Apr 5-19, 1970	A. Frey-Wyssling	Eidgenossiche Tcchnische Hochschule
Nov 11-23, 1970	Carl L. Hubbs	Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Feb 1-12, 1971	H.L. KornBerg	University of Leicester, England
Nov 22-Dec 3, 1971	Hilary Koprowski	University of Pennsylvania
Jan 17-28, 1972	George Beadle	University of Chicago
Jan 17-28, 1972	Muriel Beadle	University of Chicago
May 1-12, 1972	Sterling Hendricks	Agriculture Research Service, U.S.D.A
Oct 16-27, 1972	George Gaylord Simpson	The Simroe Foundation
Feb 23-Mar 9, 1973	Sir Alan S. Parkes	The Galton Foundation
Apr 9-20, 1973	Peter R. Marler	The Rockefeller University
May 7-18, 1973	George C. Cotzias, M.D.	Brookhaven National Laboratory
Nov 6-13, 1973	Eugene E. Odum	University of Georgia
Nov 12-16, 1973	Peter Alexander	Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital
Mar 4-15, 1974	Davis A. Hamburg, MD.	Stanford University School of Medicine
Apr 1-15, 1974	Kent V. Flannery	University of Michigan
Nov 4-15, 1974	Garrett Hardin	University of California, Santa Barbara
Mar 30-Apr 9, 1975	Kenneth J. Carpenter	University of Cambridge
Apr 20-May 2, 1975	Murray S. Blum	University of Georgia
Oct 20-31, 1975	Bert W. O'Malley, M.D.	Baylor College of Medicine,
Apr 12-23, 1976	Sydney Brenner	Division of Cell Biology of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England
May 17-28, 1976	Peter S. Carlson	Michigan State University,
Nov 22-Dec 3, 1976	Roger Y. Stanier	Pasteur Institute,
Jan 24-Feb 4, 1977	Peter Albersheim	University of Colorado
Feb 22-Mar 4, 1977	*Jere Mead, M.D. Cecil K. and Philip Drinker	Harvard University
Apr 11-12, 1977	S. J. Singer	University of California, San Diego
Nov 20-30, 1977	James D. Ebert	Marine Biological Laboratory
Feb 8-15, 1978	Sir Kenneth Blaxtcr	Rowen Research Institute
Apr 5-12, 1978	Eric H. Davidson	California Institute of Technology
Oct 9-20, 1978	Jutgen Aschoff	Max-Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
Feb 20-22, 1979	*Burt L. Vallee, Paul C. Cabot	Harvard Medical School
Apr 24-26, 1979	Carl R. Woese	University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Nov 5-16, 1979	Daphne J. Osborne	Oxford University
Februarv 4-15, 1980	John F. Eisenberg	Smithsonian Institution.
Apr 16-18, 1980	George E. Palade, M.D.	Yale Medical School
May 5-16, 1980	Jerre Levy	University of Chicago
Oct 27-30, 1980	Colin Blakemore	Oxford University
Jan 21-27, 1980	Pierre Dejours	CNRS
Feb 26-Mar 5, 1981	Richard Alexander	University of Michigan
Oct 20-27, 1981	Alfred F. Harper	University of Wisconsin Madison
May 11-19, 1982	Glenn W. Burton	USDA-SEA
Oct 11-18, 1982	Richard F. Leakey	National Museums of Kenya
Jan 6-11, 1983	Eric R. Kandel, M.D.	Columbia University,
Oct 12-18, 1983	Donald S. Farner	University of Washington
Feb 13-15, 1984	Daniel Branton	Harvard University
Apr 24-26, 1984	J. Michael Bishop	University of California, San Francisco
Dec 3-6, 1984	Maurice Fried	National Research Council
Apr 3-8, 1985	John Krebs	Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology
May 8-14, 1985	Geoffrey M. Ole Maloiy	University of Nairobi
Oct 8-10, 1985	Michael P. Hassell	Imperial College, London
Apr 21-24, 1986	John Maynard Smith	University of Sussex.
Dec 1-4, 1986	Aldo Carl Leopold	Boyce Thompson Institute
Mar 2A, 1987	Gerald Edelman	The Rockefeller University
Nov 10-12, 1987	Jean-Claude Chcrrnann	Pasteur Institute, Paris France
Jan 15-20, 1988	Jean-Pierre Changeux	Pasteur Institute, Paris France
Apr 11-15, 1988	John I. Harpcr	University College of North Wales
Oct 17-21, 1988	Rudiger Wehner	University of Zurich
Oct 23-26, 1989	John C. Torrey	Harvard University
Feb 26-Mar 2, 1990	Heinz Saedler	Max-Planck-Institute
Nov 5-7, 1990	Francis Crick	The Salk Institute
Jan 28-31, 1991	Thomas A. McMahon	Harvard University
May 28-30, 1991	Lynn Margulis	University of Massachusetts
Nov 18-21, 1991	Richard C. Lewontin	Harvard University
Feb 4-6, 1992	Philip Leder	Harvard Medical School
Apr 13-16, 1992	Patrick Bateson	University of Cambridge
Nov 16-19, 1992	Melvin I. Simon	California Institute of Technology
Feb 1-5, 1993	Anne McLaren	Wellcome/CRC Institute
Apr 13-16, 1993	Judah Folkman	Harvard Medical School
Jan 24 -27, 1994	Philippa Marrack	National Jewish Center
Feb 28-Mar 3, 1994	Stephen O'Brien	National Cancer Institute
Apr 18-21, 1994	Roy M. Anderson	University of Oxford
Oct 31-Nov 2, 1994	Michael J. Berridge	The Babraham Institute
Feb 6-10, 1995	Hal Hatch	CSIRO Division of Plant Industry
May 1-5, 1995	Elaine Fuchs	The University of Chicago
Oct 16-19, 1995	Peter Ellison	Harvard University
Mar 4-8, 1996	Gottfried Schatz	University of Basel, Switzerland
Apr 8-10, 1996	Daniel Hillel	University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Feb 3-6, 1997	Peter R. Grant	Princeton University
Apr 14-17, 1997	William J. Lennarz	State University of New York
May 5-7, 1997	Carolyn W. Slayman	Yale University School of Medicine
Apr 20-22, 1998	Floyd Bloom	The Scripps Research 1nstitute
May 18-20, 1998	Ian Wilmut	Roslin Institute
Jan 11-13, 1999	Leroy E. Hood	University of Washington
Apr 26-28, 1999	Patricia Goldman-Rakic	Yale University School of Medicine
Jan 30-31, 2001	Charles Arntzen	Arizona State University
		University of Oxford
Mar 4-6, 2002	Jan H. Hoeijmakcrs	Erasmus University
Apr 11-12, 2002	Fred H. Gage	The Salk Institute
May 6-7, 2002	Phillip A. Sharp	Center for Cancer Research, MIT
Jan 13-15, 2003	George M. Martin, M.D.	University of Washington
Mar 10-11, 2003	Kim A. Nasmyth	Vienna Biocenter
Apr 28-29, 2003	Tim Flannery	Director of the South Australian Museum
Dec 1-2, 2003	William Greenough	University of Illinois
Feb 18-19, 2004	Bruce Ames	Children's Hospital, Oakland Research Institute
Nov 29-30, 2004	Hans Herren	International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
Apr 26-27, 2005	H. Robert Horvitz	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 9-10, 2005	Steven Chu	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Jan 24-25, 2006	Cynthia Kenyon	University of California, San Francisco
Mar 14-15, 2006	Thomas D. Pollard	Yale University
Oct 23-24, 2006	Mimi Koehl	University of California, Berkeley
Dec 4-5, 2006	Simon A. Levin	Princeton University
Apr 5-6, 2007	Sir Peter Crane, FRS	University of Chicago
Apr 23-24, 2007	Stephen Quake	Stanford University
May 14-15, 2007	Pasko Rakic	Yale University
Mar 23-24, 2009	Sean Carroll	University of Wisconsin
Apr 20-21, 2009	H. Allen Orr	University of Rochester
May 19-20, 2009	John Doebley	University of Wisconsin
Mar 11-12, 2010	Elliot Meyerowitz	California Institute of Technology
May 17-18, 2010	Robert Langer	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 11-12, 2011	Nina Federoff	Pennsylvania State University
Jan 11-12, 2012	Jane Lubchenco	NOAA
Apr 24-25, 2012	Ilkka Hanski	University of Helsinki
May 30-31, 2012	Loren Rieseberg	University of British Columbia
Oct 2-3, 2012	Ed Delong	MIT
Nov 15, 2012	Jordi Bascompte	Estación Biológica de Doñana
Nov 19, 2012	Simon Boulton	London Research Institute
Jan 16, 2013	Ary Hoffman	University of Melbourne
Jan 31, 2013	Jonathan Losos	Harvard
Mar 18, 2013	Gloria Coruzzi	NYU
Apr 10-11 2013	Peter Agre	Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
May 6, 2013	Richard Wrangham	Harvard
May 16, 2013	Sue Carter	RTI International
May 28, 2013	Larry Gold	CU Boulder
June 4, 2013	Eric Schadt	Mount Sinai
June 05, 2013	Nancy Moran	Yale
Oct 28-29, 2013	Walter Bodmer	University of Oxford
Dec 4-5, 2013	Ronald Kaback	UCLA
Feb 24, 2014	Patricia Wright	Stony Brook
Mar 5-6, 2014	Steve Carpenter	University of Wisconsin
Apr 9-10, 2014	Jerry Coyne	University of Chicago
May 20-21, 2014	May Berenbaum	University of Illinois
May 28-29, 2014	Joel Cohen	Rockefeller University
Oct 28-29, 2014	Charles Rice	The Rockefeller University
Nov 19-20, 2014	Rolf Zinkernagel	University of Zurich
Apr 15-16, 2015	Tim Clutton Block	University of Cambridge
Oct 7-8, 2015	Richard Lenski	Michigan State
April 22, 2016	Steve Nowicki	Duke University

The total numbers come to 19 females out of 142 speakers or ~13% female and 87% male. Ugh.

And the person I had suggested to invite was male. So I wrote back to the organizers and I wrote:

From: Jonathan Eisen

Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2015 11:34 AM

To: XXXCc: XXX

Subject: Abyssmal gender ratio of speakers in the Storer Lectureship series

XXX and XXXX

With sincere apologies but ...

In preparing a letter of invitation for XXX I decided to include some examples of previous Storer Lecturers. And therein lies the problem On the web sitehttp://www.dbs.ucdavis.edu/seminars_and_events/storer_lecture_list.htmlfrom my count, there are 121 past speakers listed. Of these, 15 appear to be female (from my estimate). That comes to 12%. That is embarassaingly low. I hope my calculations here are wrong.

Can you tell me if the Storer Lectureship has any policies regarding diversity of speakers? If yes, can you provide me with those details.

If no, I recommend you implement one as soon as possible. Either way, I refuse to have my name affiliated with this series, and will not invite anyone to talk in it, without further information and without some serious attempt to figure out how to do a better job representing the diversity of biologists who could give such talks.

Jonathan

They wrote back with a very detailed response and were very supportive of the concept of increasing diversity of speakers. And they explained some of the efforts they had made in this regard. And they really seem to be trying in some ways. But in the end, their main justification for the lack of diversity was that they were trying to invite already recognized, in essence famous, biologists. People who had won a Nobel or were in the National Academy of Sciences or were HHMI investigators. And this pool, that they had chosen, was skewed in gender balance.

So I wrote back to them June 18:

All
Thanks very much for the response.

I understand you have some constraints and greatly appreciate that you are committed to trying to improve the diversity of speakers. However, the end result is truly not acceptible in my mind and therefore I believe more needs to be done, urgently, to improve the situation.

What are some possible ways to improve the situation?

Well, the number one recommendation I would make would be to not constrain the pool to honorific groups that themselves have severe skews. No we cannot solve those skews and there are many causes for them. But I believe it is a major mistake to use the diversity of those groups (NAS, Nobel, HHMI) as a target. Either invite people to represent diversity well even from a constrained pool, or, open up to a broader pool (there are plenty of incredible scientists who have not gotten HHMI, NAS, or Nobels).

In addition to opening up the pool and not aiming at such a low bar, there are many things one can do to improve the diversity of speakers. I have written about this extensively as have many others. I can point the committee to some of these articles if interested.

In the end, whatever the reasons are, the Storer series has ended up with extremely biased gender ratio of speakers. I think it is up to the committee to fix this with a combination of actions. But the first thing I would recommend is to not use the diversity of a set of pools you have chosen as an excuse. We can and should do better and if the pools are the reason, the pools from which you sample need to be changed.

Jonathan

They wrote back, saying they were really committed to achieving better gender balance in the future writing "we are totally committed to the same goals as you in terms of gender balance now and in the future." And they also wrote that they expected "the final lineup to reflect at least 30 percent or more female" as long as one additional woman (the person I had originally recommended) would come (though I had told them she said she could not). And then they asked if I would reconsider inviting the man who I had been about to invite that had started this whole discussion.

So I wrote back again July 14:

Thanks again for the response. And though I do not want to continue beating a dead horse, I am not convinced we are doing enough in this area. For example, what explains the "at least 30 percent" and how close to 30% will that be. This is important as, for example, the National Science Foundation will not support their people attending meetings if female speakers are at < 33%. I think 30% is, to be honest, just not acceptable in biology. So beofre contributing any more to this series I need to know exactly what is meant by "we are totally committed to the same goals as you in terms of gender balance now and in the future."

For example, here are some questions I would like to know the answers to:

Are you committed to achieving gender balance in the speaker series or just saying you are being more even than before?

Are you committed to researching and using diverse options to ensure diversity of speakers beyond just focusing on who is invited?

Are you interested in understanding why the series has been so undiverse in the past and addressing this directly or just moving forward?

Are you willing to address the lack of diversity in the past publicly and also discuss efforts to improve the diversity?

I would very much like to know more detail about how serious you are to having a diverse series and what you plan to do to achieve this.

With apologies, but in regard to inviting XXX or XXX. I am sorry but given the past record of this series, which as I said is among the worst I have seen anywhere, I am just not willing to be involved in any way until I see a stronger and more public committment to diversity.

I am happy to help with the series and to help improve the diversity of speakers. But this should be done openly and publicly and forcefully. And without evidence of this, I am unable and unwilling to be involved.

And, well, I have not heard from them again. So, I am writing this. For many reasons. But a key one is, I think we need to be more public about such issues. And we just need to fix things that are broken.

So today I decided to make the post live. I wish I had done this earlier.

Some responses

The Tree of Life: UC Davis Storer Lecture series - Concerning stats about gender disparities from @phylogenomics https://t.co/Auo9KQWoG9
— Andy Jones (@andyojones) April 21, 2016

Important read: "UC Davis Storer Lecture series - since 1963 87% of speakers are male" https://t.co/gcsgSt1Woe
— Alexandra Rosati (@AlexGRosati) April 21, 2016