Strong role models and undergraduate research opportunities attract women to science and math majors.
Crystal Richardson, ’10, is passionate about researching genetic events between marine sponges and microorganisms. Gabriela Timoney, ’11, spends countless hours in a lab studying the structural basis of the dual effects of fatty acid on Kv4 channel function.
“UR has some of the best technology and opportunities for science,” says Richardson, who also considered attending the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia. “The undergraduate research here is on par with graduate level projects at other universities.”
Richardson and Timoney chose Richmond because of its strong science curriculum, outstanding professor mentors, and opportunities to conduct significant research as undergraduates. Both exemplify the commitment Richmond has made to attract and retain women undergraduates as science majors.
Fifteen years ago, men outnumbered women nearly two-to-one among seniors majoring in science and math. But those numbers were almost even among 2008 graduates—45 men versus 44 women.
Women at Richmond are particularly drawn to the biological sciences. From 2000–08, the University awarded degrees to 280 female biology majors and 159 male biology majors. Sixty-two women and 63 men graduated with chemistry majors during those same years.
This summer is Richardson’s fourth in a campus lab. One thing that attracted her to Richmond was the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) program, a five-week pre-freshman program supported by HHMI. The program gives underrepresented students, including women, a head start on undergraduate research.
“I was able to come to campus early and shadow a scholar,” Richardson says. “Luckily, I was paired with Dr. April Hill (associate professor of biology) and have been working with her since then.”
The focus of Richardson’s research is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved during the acquisition of symbionts by marine sponges. “The biomedical importance of these marine symbionts is vast, including the production of anti-cancer and immune system drugs,” she says.
Because of Richmond’s low student-faculty ratio, students often form close working relationships with professors, says Richardson, a biochemistry and molecular biology major from Fredericksburg, Va.
“Dr. Hill has had a great impact on me,” she says. “It’s amazing what she can juggle”—research, teaching, mentoring, and raising a family. “I really enjoy my research experience here. I’d like to go to graduate school and continue researching. I’d like to be a professor.”
National studies from the late 1990s and early 2000s concluded that one reason why women were underrepresented in science and math is that they lacked sufficient female role models in those fields. When Dr. Andy Newcomb became dean of the School of Arts & Sciences in 2001, only 31 percent of faculty members in math and science were women. That number has increased to 38 percent in the past eight years.
In addition to Hill, Richardson praises Dr. Laura Runyen-Janecky, associate professor of biology. She is “phenomenal,” Richardson says. “There are so many good women role models here.”
Undergraduate research
Gabriela Timoney knew she wanted to conduct research and major in science after working with graduate students from Princeton University in a program arranged by the high school she attended in Lawrenceville, N.J.
Dr. Linda Boland works with Gabriela Timoney, ’11, (top) to get unfertilized frog egg cells to make brain ion channel proteins. Dr. Sarah Spence Adams, ’97 (bottom) credits Richmond role models for much of her success.
She looked at universities that offered undergraduate research, including the University of Wisconsin and the University of Maryland, but when she considered smaller schools, Richmond became her top choice.
“I liked how the students interacted with professors, especially the research students who form really close relationships with their professors. I’ve been studying with Dr. Linda Boland (associate professor of biology) for two years. She’s brilliant. She’s incredible, dedicated to her research. The dedication shows with the amount of time and care she puts into it.”
Like Richardson, Timoney took advantage of the pre-freshman program supported by HHMI. She spent that summer and two subsequent semesters studying how different fatty acids modulate fast-inactivating Kv4 potassium channels by inhibiting peak current and speeding up inactivation. Last summer, an undergraduate summer research fellowship from the American Physiological Society funded her work with Boland. This year, Timoney looked at channels in the brain and the heart, essentially trying to uncover why fatty acids inhibit those channels. Their work eventually could enhance people’s ability to remember and learn.
“It’s more fulfilling to follow a project through to the end, not just for a semester or two,” says Timoney, a biochemistry and molecular biology major considering medical school. A paper to which she contributed—“Inhibitory Effects of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on Kv4/KChIP Potassium Channels”—was recently accepted by The American Journal of Physiology.
“I love Richmond,” Timoney says. “The personal relationships have been special, and other professors know your name and what you’re working on. They have your best interests at heart.” The caring culture “has helped the science program thrive.”
The lure of math
Richmond also encourages more women to major in math. In 2006, Dr. Jim Davis, professor of mathematics, and Dr. Kathy Hoke, associate dean of the School of Arts & Sciences and associate professor of mathematics, secured a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to encourage students to major in math and go on to graduate school in the subject.
“We want to make sure we’re attracting all students to math,” Hoke says. “We want to catch them early and let them experience mathematics, work on a problem they don’t know the answer to.”
Richmond is the lead university for LURE (Long-term Undergraduate Research Experience), a 10-week summer program funded by the NSF. UR has extended offers this summer to 16 students—eight women and eight men. “If those 16 all come, we will have had 50 students in the program (in its first three years), 24 of them women,” Hoke says.
Richmond’s math and computer science department issues personal invitations to participate in research programs, especially to female students. Women are more likely to respond to a personal invitation, Hoke explains.
Hoke joined the Richmond faculty in 1985, straight from graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has seen an increasing number of women majoring in math and science, but says gender balance can vary arbitrarily from one year to the next. “It’s hard to say what’s a result of program change,” she says, “and what’s a result of women coming in and expecting more.”
In the past three years, 377 students have immersed themselves in summer undergraduate research in science, not counting psychology students. One hundred seventy-nine of those students were women. “We had 52 percent women last summer,” Hoke says. Newcomb notes that funding for summer research has increased nearly 350 percent in the past 10 years, increasing opportunities for women and men alike. His goal is to provide 250 summer research fellowships annually—up from 170 last year.
Pass it on
Hoke enjoys following the careers of women who have graduated from Richmond and are making names for themselves in math and computer science. One she recalls vividly is Dr. Sarah Spence Adams, ’97.
Last fall Adams, an assistant professor of mathematics at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering near Boston, spent the semester in UR’s Jepson Hall, teaching math classes and conducting research with Dr. Jim Davis as a visiting professor.
Adams was involved in writing the LURE grant with Hoke and Davis. “I’m having the opportunity to work with her,” Hoke says. “She was incredible [as a student] and unbelievable now.”
At Richmond, Adams won a Clare Boothe Luce scholarship, a national scholarship awarded to female students majoring in computer science, mathematics, or physics. It covers the cost of the student’s tuition, room, and board.
She helped build Olin College, which aims to be gender balanced and is very selective, from the ground up. The college graduated its first class last year. Adams maintains an active research program that focuses on increasing the reliability and efficiency of wireless communications.
“She’s having a strong influence on women,” Hoke says. “It’s cool to see that.”
Doing research with professors was a “huge highlight” of her years at Richmond, said Adams.
“The experience with Jim (Davis) and Gary (Greenfield, associate professor of mathematics) really kick-started things for me,” Adams says.
“Della Fenster (associate professor of mathematics) was a new faculty member when I was there. She taught abstract algebra 2, and there were only three of us in the class. She was so wonderful. She even had us over to decorate Christmas cookies. We’re still in touch. Della has three kids now, and I’ve watched her family grow.
“It was wonderful to have a relationship with a professor. It really differentiates an undergraduate’s experience. I did my Ph.D. at Cornell and saw what the majority of undergraduates had, and it doesn’t compare to Richmond.”
Adams, from a small town in Massachusetts, stumbled upon Richmond as her college choice. She and her mother were flying home from Richmond International Airport after visiting other universities in Virginia and North Carolina. They had a few hours to kill. “I wasn’t even planning to look at Richmond,” said Adams, “but my mother, a guidance counselor, had heard of it, and suggested we stop by.” Once Adams learned what opportunities were available and saw the beautiful campus, she put Richmond at the top of her list.
“I knew I wanted to be a mathematician, but I didn’t know what that meant until I was at UR,” Adams says. Richmond gave her confidence and skill. “They continued to support me after I graduated, when I was in grad school. I would contact Jim and Della when I had questions. Now I’m their peer.
“Watching Della balance her career with her family gave me the confidence that I could do it, too,” says Adams, who has a 1-year-old daughter. “She gave me hope that it was possible.”
A rising star
Richmond was a nurturing place for Dr. Olga Troyanskaya, ’99, an assistant professor in the department of computer science and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. She runs the institute’s Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics. She was named a “rising star” in the field of computer science, according to an analysis published by ScienceWatch.com last May.
Richmond “was really a home for me,” says Troyanskaya, who grew up in Moscow. She was living with a family in Woodbridge, Va., for her senior year of high school when she first visited the University.
“They did amazing things for me to be able to come,” says Troyanskaya, who received a full scholarship. “In Russia, everyone at the time was studying economics, business, or law. I never took a single business class.”
Troyanskaya, who received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, says she stays in touch with Dr. John Hayden, professor of biology. “He took me on in research and taught me how it was done. I was treated as a graduate student when I was a junior and senior.”
She also mentions Hoke as a great math teacher and role model.
Hoke got to know Troyanskaya when Troyanskaya asked her for help with mathematical questions in an honors thesis that combined computer science and biology. “Doing an honors thesis in biology and computer science was very unusual,” Hoke recalls. “There were and are very interesting questions at the forefront of research boundaries in the interface between computer science and biology, but Olga was here before we began teaching courses in this area.”
It’s important for women in science to see other women as examples, Troyanskaya says.
“I wouldn’t have gotten where I am if it weren’t for Richmond. Because of the support and mentors who believed in me, they taught me to think like an independent scientist. They gave me confidence.”
Balancing act
Female students gravitate to April Hill’s lab, perhaps because they see in her what they can become.
“I manage three kids, my classes, my research, and apply for grants,” says Hill, who was a first-generation college student. “It’s certainly possible to be a woman, have a family, and be successful. I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy, but it is really rewarding. I think that having more role models that seem similar to you can go a long way in helping you believe you can achieve something.”
Students work from six to 12 hours a week with Hill, studying sponges to gain insight into animal body systems. “Anytime you can spend that much time with your mentor, you learn about the discipline, how to manage your career.”
Hill has been teaching for 10 years, five of those at Richmond, long enough to see long-term results. “I now have students who have finished post-docs and are getting their big jobs. I try to keep track of all my students. A mentorship need not end with graduation.”
Hill could be conducting research with dozens of doctoral candidates at a large university, “but I can’t imagine that would be nearly as rewarding as working with an 18-year-old for four years,” she says. “I love being part of helping someone launch their career.”
Pam Feibish is a freelance writer in Richmond.
Send comments about this story to krhodes@richmond.edu.
