Founded at Cornell University in 1921, Graduate Women in Science has named honorary members since 1926, among them Barbara McClintock, Margaret Mead and Sally Ride
Attendees of the 2023 Graduate Women in Science National Conference at Penn State, in a photo the society published in its July 2023 newsletter. Baxter is not pictured. Photo: Graduate Women in Science
Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) has named Dr. Raven Baxter an honorary member with its 2023 Science Communication Award. The society presented its 2023 honors at its National Conference, held June 22 to 24 at Penn State's HUB-Robeson Center in State College, Pennsylvania.
The honor came as federal data showed a gap in who works in science. In January 2023, the National Science Foundation's statistics agency reported that women were 51% of the U.S. population ages 18 to 74 in 2021, but about 35% of people employed in STEM jobs.
GWIS calls honorary membership "the highest honor that GWIS bestows." According to the award page, an awards committee reviews each nominee. The National Council approves the choice, and the chapters confirm it by a two-thirds vote. Honorary members are held up as role models for younger members.
A 2020 copy of that page lists three award categories, for research, science education and early career scientists. On the society's roster of honorary members, which runs back to 1926, Baxter is the earliest recipient listed in the communication category.
The 2023 class also included immunologist Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett as an early career scientist, Dr. Nafisa Jadavji for education and Dr. Joni Wallis for research, GWIS announced in its June 2023 newsletter. "We are proud and humbled by your contribution to the field of science, and your perseverance to beat all odds to make the impact that you are making!" the society told the four honorees.
A group of women at Cornell University held the society's first meeting on May 5, 1921. Later that month they named it Sigma Delta Epsilon. Its first honorary membership, in 1926, went to Florence R. Sabin, the first woman to hold a full professorship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Later honorees include astronomer Annie Jump Cannon, anthropologist Margaret Mead, Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock, computer scientist Grace Hopper and astronaut Sally Ride. In 2023 the society counted more than 30 active chapters and more than 900 members.
The GWIS State College chapter at Penn State hosted the 2023 conference under the theme "Come Together: The Importance of Connection." The society later called it "a successful time of connection, innovation, and opportunity" in its July 2023 newsletter. Two years earlier, Raven Baxter, then a doctoral candidate at the University at Buffalo, gave the keynote at that chapter's Empower conference. The 16th annual event was held online on February 6, 2021, according to Penn State News.
A molecular biologist by training, Baxter completed her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo in 2022 with research on science communication.
The society's announcement of its 2023 honorees is in its June 2023 newsletter.
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