The Obama administration has identified work and education in the STEM disciplines - science, technology, engineering, and math - as a "vital initiative" for American competitiveness. Georgia Tech continues to ramp up its efforts to attract and retain a diverse community of STEM students. Coinciding with these initiatives is newly funded research by School of Public Policy Associate Professor Julia Melkers, focused on researching the structure and resources of professional networks of academic women and minority faculty in STEM fields. The project is funded by a $1.18 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Melkers' research specifically aims at understanding how career advancement and outcomes for women and minorities in academic science are affected by professional networks - which have been consistently recognized as crucial to career trajectories [See Beyond Bias and Barriers, National Academy of Science, 2006, p. 174]. Melkers' project is distinctive, in part, because it will focus on scientists at non- Research I institutions.

"Studies in this area have given considerable attention to the most competitive scientists "" those employed in Research I institutions," says Melkers. "Yet, women and under-represented minority scientists are disproportionately employed in the less research intensive, Research II institutions and Comprehensive institutions."

Melkers' new project builds upon selected findings from her other soon to be completed study (also NSF-funded) of women and minorities at R1 institutions. "That first study brought conclusions with their own merit. But the data also raised very interesting questions: Are there minorities and women who have attempted careers in top R1 schools? Are their network structurally different from faculty in R1 institutions? Have they experienced barriers to becoming employed in higher ranked institutions? Have women and minority faculty opted for non-R1 institutions? Or have they been opted there? How do their network factors figure into this?"

Melkers and her colleagues' new research will examine the network structural and resource determinants of career success, and satisfaction of women and underrepresented minorities PhDs who have faculty appointments in Research II and Comprehensive institutions. It will give particular attention to the role of mentorship in affecting network access, participation, productivity, and retention.

"The goal is to try to understand the broader characteristics of professional networks across the STEM workforce. These are the collaborative networks, but also the ones that provide career guidance and mentoring for purposes of career advancement. The results have the potential to inform structural aspects of both research and non-research academic environments, and the nature of interventions designed to attract, retain, and advance women and minorities in those institutions."

Melkers' project is entitled Empirical Research: Breaking through the Reputational Ceiling: Professional Networks as a Determinant of Advancement, Mobility, and Career Outcomes for Women and Minorities in STEM. Her co-principle investigators are Eric Welch, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Monica Gaughan, University of Georgia.