Mission
The Georgia Tech Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology links issues in the study of science and technology with those of gender, culture, and society. Growing out of the interdisciplinary Ivan Allen College undergraduate minor in Women, Science, and Technology (WST), the WST Center is currently supported by the Office of the Provost. The center brings together faculty and students, addressing issues of gender, science, and technology in research and programmatic initiatives at institutional, national and global levels. In key characteristics, the WST Center is interdisciplinary, cooperative in partnerships with students, and collaborative across Georgia Tech. Collaborations, partnerships, and alliances extend to faculty and students in Atlanta and to universities in the US and beyond.
Affiliations
The WST Center is an Organizational Affiliate Member, Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE), National Academy of Engineering, and a member of the National Council for Research on Women, a network of more than 100 leading U.S. research, advocacy, and policy center with a growing global reach.
Goals
Initiate, expand and enhance research on women, science, and technology.
Establish and expand collaboration among faculty and between students and faculty through Center research and programmatic initiatives, and through joint ventures with related Georgia Tech programs, including the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) in the College of Sciences, Women in Engineering (College of Engineering), the Women's Resource Center (Student Affairs), the Georgia Tech ADVANCE Team and other diversity initiatives coordinated by the Vice Provost for Academic Diversity.
Enrich and establish the national prominence of Georgia Tech’s interdisciplinary research programs focusing on gender, science and technology through electronic communication and programmatic ventures, such as the WST Lecture Series and focused research panels.
Provide research-based practice and policy toward full and sustained participation and performance of women in scientific and technological education and careers, disseminated through national and international research publications, presentations, and electronic communications.
Support the instruction and development of students through partnerships with faculty in WST research and programmatic initiatives, including the WST Learning Community partnership with Georgia Tech Housing.
Link educators, researchers, entrepreneurs, and technologists with shared interest in improving human resources of both women and men for science and technology, thereby connecting Georgia Tech to universities, schools, industry, and government regionally, nationally, and internationally.
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History
The WST Center was created in 1999, supported by funds from the Georgia Tech Foundation and the Focused Research Program of the office of the Vice-Provost for Graduate Studies and Research. The WST Center began as an inter-college initiative sponsored by the Colleges of Science and Engineering, and the Ivan Allen College.
In 2001, the WST Center became a Georgia Tech Center, receiving funding from and reporting to the provost. As of fall 2008, the WST Center reports to Georgia Tech’s Vice Provost for Academic Diversity, the chief academic diversity officer of the institute.
The WST Center partnered with the Office of the Provost and Georgia Tech colleges on the Georgia Tech National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation cooperative agreement (2001-07). WST Co-Directors continue to work as ADVANCE Team members collaborating on initiatives with ADVANCE Professors and the Office of Faculty Career Development.
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Co-Directors
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