The Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois
A Note from the Head of the Department of Chemistry
In 1916 in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois a graduate student named St. Elmo Brady became the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. degree in the U.S. He went on to have a very successful career serving several historically black universities and colleges. Years later he said of his time in graduate school: "they began with 20 whites and one other and ended, in 1916 with six whites and one other." Much has changed in the intervening years, but many challenges still exist.
Our leadership role in bringing underrepresented groups into chemistry has continued, and we remain dedicated to achieving a diversified graduate student body while encouraging and advising women and underrepresented groups in all areas of research. For example, in 1993 we started our Merit Workshops for Emerging Scholars in response to the lower retention rate of Latinos, African-Americans, women, and other underrepresented groups. The merit workshops are special discussion sections of undergraduate lectures that utilize the pioneering methods developed by Uri Treisman in the 1980s to create challenging collaborative learning environments where social bonds mutually reinforce problem solving exercises.
Currently, the Department of Chemistry is implementing a multi-tiered teacher-mentor system for the graduate program which is modeled after, and linked to, the Merit Program. Members of our Committee on Diversity and I serve as faculty advisors to the program. There are many special programs and resources available at the University of Illinois and more information on these can be found by exploring the links on our Opportunities page. If you have questions about any of the programs outlined here, please don’t hesitate to contact me. We are committed to the idea that true gender and racial equality in the field of chemistry will not be achieved until the "pipeline issue" is solved: women and underrepresented minorities must obtain B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the top chemistry programs and in proportion to their representation within the population.
Sincerely,
Steven C. Zimmerman
