The iCON Award was developed to recognize the important role of education, research, and training in fostering growth and in building the next generation of Midwest biotechnology and life sciences innovators and leaders. This award celebrates the achievements of leaders who nurture education, training, and scholarship in the life sciences in Illinois.

Dr. Elizabeth Babcock, Vice President, Education and Library Collections at The Field Museum in Chicago

Elizabeth C. Babcock, Ph.D. is Vice President, Education and Library Collections. Dr. Babcock is responsible for the development and implementation of education programs, outreach initiatives and digital programming to over 800,000 adults, families, teachers and students each year. The focus of her work is to improve the public’s understanding of natural history and to serve diverse audiences by leveraging the Museum’s exhibitions, collections and scientific research.Dr. Babcock’s work in the Library focuses on increasing the public’s access to and utilization of the Museum’s rare book collection, photo and institutional archives, and general collection of over 300,000 items.

Prior to assuming her current role, Dr. Babcock served as Director of Education and Library Collections, Teacher and Student Programs Director, and Manager of Teacher and Student Programs at The Field Museum. Before joining the Museum in 2002, Dr. Babcock worked in the environmental field as a consultant and program developer, designing community outreach strategies. She worked for several years in the corporate sector, managing user experience research and design projects in the financial, consumer products and technology industries. She has also worked as a program evaluator and visitor studies researcher for museums, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

Elizabeth has taught K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and adult students in a range of content areas, including music for special needs students, environmental anthropology, sustainable development, introductory anthropology, and adult literacy.

iCON Innovator Award (University Level):

Dr. Brenda Russell, Professor, Professor of Physiology, Biophysics, Bioengineering and Medicine, and Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Illinois at Chicago

Brenda Russell, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology, Biophysics, Bioengineering and Medicine, and Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Russell’s scientific training, background, experience and productivity encompass a range of disciplines and forge linkages in the continuum between quantitative biology, bioengineering and physiology. Her current NIH support funds two collaborative projects, one on heart failure for regulation of protein synthesis and remodeling of cell shape, and the other for tissue engineering with development of a novel cell culture system using bioengineering and surface chemistry modification. Many of her studies have been done in close collaboration with clinicians (heart failure, muscular dystrophies, urinary incontinence).

Dr. Russell is former editor of The American Journal of Physiology: CellSection; Cell & Tissue Research and editorial board member of many journals, including Circulation Research and The Journal of Applied Physiology. She has written reviews, book chapters and well over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Some of her material is now incorporated into textbooks – including the widely used Gray’s Anatomy and Berne and Levy’s Physiology.

Major research often requires collaboration and interdisciplinary resources. Dr. Russell has chaired several cross-disciplinary task forces at UIC including regenerative medicine with stem cells (clinical, basic biomedical and bioengineering), environmental science and policy (public health, political science, pollution and geology), tobacco-related research (prevention psychology, basic biomedical, cancer, clinical treatment), bioinformatics (computer science, genomics, health informatics, biotech entrepreneurs), and structural biology (proteomics, crystallography, molecular biology). She is the UIC Leader for the Chicago Biomedical Consortium fostering interactions with the University of Chicago, Northwestern University to enable and encourage interdisciplinary research that is beyond the range of a single institution and thereby to promote educational, health and commercial developments that will benefit the Chicago community at large.

- iBIO Institute

Gender Differences in the Workplace
by University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s Angie Zeich and Carol Hendrickson

The low number of women in science careers has historically been a problem that remains pervasive today.  Women still hold proportionally low academic science positions compared to men, and the shortage affects the private sector too, particularly engineering, computer science, and management.  Click here to look at how differences in employment break down by field.  When looking at minority women statistics, the differences are even greater.  An MIT study from the 1990s showed that women science faculty at the university level also faced lower salaries, space, awards, and resources.

To amend these disparities, some universities and businesses have adopted controversial affirmative action policies.  After the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a series of court cases determined that affirmative action is legal as a remedy for past discrimination so long that it is narrowly tailored.  Universities and firms cannot use quotas or “set asides” to recruit and hire women.  However, sex may be used as a “plus factor” in hiring.  In Grutter v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court expressed that in the future, there will be a legal sunset for affirmative action policies.  Once past discrimination has been remedied, affirmative action will no longer meet legal standards.  When this will occur remains questionable.  Not all gender differences in science are due to discrimination, however.  There is no clear consensus on why more women do not pursue science careers.

Women, not only in science, often point to how family-work conflicts impact their lives differently than men.  In 1978, Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which expanded Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include pregnant women.  This act made it illegal to fire or refuse to hire a woman for being pregnant.  The 1993 Family Medical Leave Act mandated firms to offer 12 weeks of job-protected pregnancy leave.  However, more often than not, this leave is unpaid.  Canada and Europe, on the other hand, have much longer job-protected leave with pay and benefits.  Maternity leave affectively makes women more expensive than men to employ.  Therefore, some countries, such as Sweden, have policies allowing men to take job-protected paternity leave as well.  Click here to read about how other countries are managing the increase of women in the workplace.  Family commitments do not end after childbirth, and governments and firms can do much more to expand childcare services, such as subsidies to low income families.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has boosted child tax credits and increased funding for child care development.  Some schools have lengthened the school day to accommodate working mothers.  Chicago Public Schools has considered year round schooling and has begun a year round pilot program for more than a quarter of its students.

Though parenting does affect a woman’s career, and much more can be done to equalize gender differences in the workplace, the question remains why women are employed at relatively lower rates in science compared to other fields.  Why do you think less women engage in science related employment?  Join our discussion at the Women in Science Symposium.

Women in Science Symposium 2010: Building an Identity

Date: April 17, 2010

Location: Northwestern University’s Chicago Campus, Rubloff Hall

The Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST) in partnership with the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) Chicago Chapter have come together to bring you its first ever all-day Women in Science Symposium 2010: Building an Identity. The symposium, to be held on April 17th, 2010 will allow women scientists, at the academic, industry and government levels, to better recognize the number and diversity of their counterparts; create a sense of solidarity, and; broaden the spectrum of opportunities for women in Chicagoland.
Specifically the Women in Science Symposium will focus on:

• Insights from the field highlighting personal stories, professional ambitions, and milestones from some of the areas most recognized leaders

• Address the state of women in a rapidly changing science landscape across academic and government sectors

• Identify needs for the future of social and systemic change at the local and national levels; science as an industry; work/life balance.

Sponsor exposition tables will be located in Thorne Auditorium Lobby throughout the duration of the symposium.

Registration Information:
Breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks and evening reception are complimentary with your registration as well as a networking reception at the close of the day.

Parking is an additional $6 to the registration fee – garages located at Northwestern’s Chicago Campus – 222 E. Huron.

For full Women in Science Symposium 2010: Building an Identity Program Agenda – click here.

$50 advance general registration, $75 day of symposia
$25 student registration (undergraduates/graduates)

SPONSORS:

Symposium is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau.

For information on becoming a Sponsor for this symposium, please click here.

Policy Perspectives – Notes on Women in Science