UPDATES

4/16/2019 : The research proposal, "Collaborative Research: Integrating Eocene Shark Paleoecology and Climate Modeling to reveal Southern Ocean Circulation and Antarctic Glaciation", is funded by the National Science Foundation! This project is in collaboration with Dr. Matthew Huber (Purdue Univ.), Dr. Alexandra Jahn (Univ. of Colorado - Boulder), and Dr. Howie Scher (Univ. South Carolina). The abstract for this project can be found here.

March 19, 2019: I read a guide for avoiding gender bias in writing letter of reference and thought it would be great to have a similar resource for people of color. That fleeting thought is now a reality. Dr. Asmeret Berhe and I have prepared a guide for avoid racial bias in writing letters of reference. Reference letters are critical in evaluating candidates for fellowships, internships, jobs, etc. and there is no need to introduce additional bias (and obstacles) for people of color.


Avoiding racial bias in reference writing.pdf

March 14, 2019: STEM faculty who believe ability is fixed have larger racial achievement gaps and inspire less student motivation in their classes - a new study published in Science Advances shows that faculty's perception of fixed versus growth mindset makes a difference in their student performance.


"On average, all students performed more poorly in STEM courses taught by faculty who endorsed more fixed (versus growth) mindset beliefs (B = 0.08, P = 0.011). However, consistent with stereotype threat and the cues hypothesis, fixed faculty mindset beliefs were more strongly associated with lower course performance among Black, Latino, and Native American (URM) students (B = 0.12, P = 0.001) than among White and Asian students (non-URM; B = 0.08, P = 0.010; group Ă— faculty mindset interaction: B = 0.04, P = 0.041). "