University Lecture

Monday, March 31st

4:30pm Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall

Elizabeth W. Jones, Schwerz University Professor and Head, Biological Sciences

MAKING IT UP AS I (WE) WENT ALONG

I joined the faculty ranks just before the movement to include women in faculties was initiated. This meant that I was often the only woman in the room at various functions. It also meant that when the movement began, units like NIH study sections were desperate to find women to appoint, providing me with the opportunity for lots of service at the national level and a wide scientific acquaintanceship early in my career. When I left the faculty at Case Western Reserve University and came to Carnegie Mellon, I joined a department that was in its infancy. Thus in both my personal/scientific life and my professional life I had few models and had to make it up as I went along. Fortunately, Carnegie Mellon proved to be a fairly forgiving environment for learning on the job.