Welcome to WiSE!

WiSE is a network of women graduate students and post-doctoral associates working to improve the climate for women in science.

The group originated from several women-in-science initiatives sponsored at the university from 1989 through 1993. At that time, students, faculty, and administrators agreed that Duke needed to accomplish two goals: increase the number of women faculty members and students in science and engineering, and provide programmatic support for open discussion of science and gender issues.

WiSE serves as a liaison between women science and engineering students and the administration, and sponsors events in which women faculty members and students in science and engineering can come together and share experiences and ideas for change. WiSE is affiliated with the Duke University Women's Center and is supported by grants from the Office of Graduate Student Affairs and the Graduate and Professional Student Council.

How Duke WiSE Began

The Duke Women in Science and Engineering Group is the result of six years of women in science initiatives at this university. In 1989 graduate students in the Zoology and Botany departments surveyed perceptions of the graduate school experience among their peers and confirmed the presence of gender differences. Relative to their male peers, women consistently ranked their abilities lower, reported a greater loss of self-confidence, and were more likely to seriously consider leaving graduate school.

For the next two years, a mixed-gender Women in Science Discussion Group composed of graduate students, faculty, and administrators laid the groundwork for an NSF-funded project, which was conducted from 1992 to 1993. This initiative consisted of a series of seminars which explored the culture of graduate school from the perspectives of both students and faculty in the sciences and engineering. At the conclusion of the project, it was agreed that Duke needed to both increase the visibility and presence of women scientists and engineers and provide programmatic support for open discussion of science and gender issues.

To address these needs, a group of volunteer women graduate students and postdoctoral assocatiates from a number of science and engineering departments has been working since 1993 to transform the NSF model project into an active Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) initiative on the Duke campus. Originally based in the Hudson Engineering Building, WISE became affiliated with the Women's Center in the summer of 1994. Today the organization is run by a graduate student program coordinator (paid), and a group of volunteer graduate students and post-docs, aided by administrative support from the Women's Center and financial support from a variety of Duke University offices.

See a more detailed history of WiSE from 1989-1998.

Past WiSE Program Coordinators

These women have shaped and served our organization extraordinarily well. Thanks!

2007-present: Phoebe Lee

2005-2007: Tong Ren

2004-2005: Farheen Ali

2002-2004: Margaret Couvillon

1998-2001: Susan Williams

1997-1998: Kate DeBruin, Kathi Dantley

I don't have info for prior to 1997. If you worked with WiSE back then, let me know.