Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry (EWOC) is a scientific conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in organic chemistry to the forefront and seeks to empower all marginalized individuals by promoting equity, justice, diversity, and inclusion across all chemistry fields.[1][2][3][4] EWOC is the world's largest gathering of women in organic chemistry, and hosts an annual meeting of women (students, post-docs, faculty and professionals) who work or plan to work in the field of Organic Chemistry, broadly defined, from all types of institutions (academic, industry, biotech, non-profit and government).

The meeting goals are to[3]

  • Establish a peer group network for collaborating and recruiting diverse talent
  • Afford a novel mechanism to provide advice and counsel for women organic chemists
  • Share stories from different perspectives about career development and challenges faced – and overcome – along the way
  • Establish an inclusive community, with an emphasis on Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, to engage, network and support each other in the field of Organic Chemistry
  • Provide support and guidance to graduate students and post-docs making career decisions
  • Provide community support to enhance retention of women in chemistry.

History

The number of female scientists in the organic chemistry community, industry and academics, remains low (<20%).[5] Advancement of women in the chemical sciences is a challenge due to the so-called “leaky pipeline,” wherein growing numbers of women enter academics and industry to study science opt out to pursue alternative careers, some of which are congruent with science while others are outside the discipline altogether.[6][7] Inspired by the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing series of Conferences to encourage women to participate in computer science, gender diversity should be a goal across our community and we should actively be looking for opportunities to recognize, identify and retain women in the field of organic chemistry regardless of gender or any other protected characteristic.[8][9][10]

To accomplish this goal a group of scientists (Lara Kallander, Donna Huryn, Ellie Cantor, Rebecca Ruck, Margaret Faul and Mary Watson) founded the non-profit Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry (EWOC) Conferences in 2019.  The volunteer-run EWOC conferences allow women leaders to present their scientific research and also allows the participants to hear career stories of how eminent women in the field of organic chemistry have developed their careers and the challenges they have faced – and overcome – along the way. The meeting consists of both science and career topics to provide support and guidance for the next generation of women chemists, as well as provide opportunities for professionals to learn up-to-date science, network and share experiences.

Since 2021, various regional chapters of EWOC chapters have been launched, featuring virtual symposia and other events.[11][12]

Conference structure

The EWOC Conference structure consists of a combination of scientific presentations, workshops, topical networking sessions, career panel and also includes a poster session. Examples of Workshops have included Cultivate Belonging in the Workplace for Yourself and Others; How to Create, Build and Leverage Networks for Sustained Leadership and Career Success and Cultural Change to Enable Diversity & Inclusion, the Psychology of Selves: Beyond Imposter Syndrome, Leading through Influence, Allies Help Turn the Tide, Take Control of Your Time: Say No, Negotiate, Delegate, Beyond Pajamas: Coming out of COVID Isolation Mindfully, Beyond Pajamas: Coming out of COVID Isolation Mindfully, and a Discussion Toward Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Organic Chemistry. Examples of topical networking sessions have focused on Work/Life Balance Discussion, How to start an EWOC Chapter, Publishing like a Boss, Creating a Culture of Safety, Interviewing and choosing a company, and various peer networking discussions for graduate students, postdocs, early career faculty, LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, & People of Color (BIPOC), and Allies and Advocates, among others. The virtual format of EWOC has been cited as an example of the benefits of virtual conferences because they are "more accessible to people who couldn’t otherwise attend because of travel costs or restrictions or because they have family obligations that make travel onerous."[13]

List of EWOC Conferences

2019 Meeting and Speakers

The first Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry Conference took place on Friday, June 28, 2019, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.[14]

Name Affiliation Presentation Title
Madeleine Joullié Univ Pennsylvania Women in Organic Chemistry; Past, Present and Future
Malika Jeffries-EL Boston Univ Design and Synthesis of Organic Electronic Materials
Geraldine Richmond Univ Oregon COAChing to be Leaders in Science and Innovation
Catherine Grimes Univ Delaware Breaking Down Walls to Treat Inflammation
Lisa Jarvis C&E News How to be Heard: Why Diversity in Science Journalism Matters & Practical Advice on Telling your Science Stories
Emma Parmee Merck & Co. New Directions in Chemistry at Merck: Expanding Exploration of Chemical Space

2019 Career Panel featured Sarah Wengryniuk (Temple University), Emily McLaughlin (Bard College), Nikki Goodwin (GlaxoSmithKline), Jamie McCabe Dunn (Merck), Zhenzhen Dong (Adesis), Nicole Camasso (JACS).

2020 Meeting and Speakers

The second annual Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry Conference was held virtually on Thursday, August 13, 2020, and Friday, August 14, 2020.[15]

Name Affiliation Presentation Title
Vy M. Dong UC Irvine Choose Your Own Adventures in Metal-Hydride Catalysis
Julia Kalow Northwestern Univ Switching Fields and Polymer Properties with Light
Donna Blackmond Scripps Research Institute Reflections on an Asymmetric Career Path
Nicola J. Webb Corteva Agriscience Application of Green Chemistry Principles to the Design of a Novel Fungicide, Florylpicoxamid
Carolyn Bertozzi UC Berkeley New Therapeutic Modalities for Targeted Degradation in the Extracellular Space

2020 Career Panel featured Shanina Sanders Johnson (Spelman College), Davita Watkins (Univ of Mississippi), Niki Patel (Merck), Stacy Fosu (Abbvie), Beth Lorsbach (Corteva Agriscience), Sibrina Collins (Marburger STEM Center, Lawrence Technological University), Shana Cyr (Bristol Myers Squibb), Sherri Pietranico-Cole (Novartis), Gabby Nepomuceno (California Department of Toxic Substances Control).

2021 Meeting and Speakers

The third annual Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry Conference was held virtually on Thursday, June 24, and Friday, June 25, 2021.[16][4][17]

Name Affiliation Presentation Title
Anne McNeil University of Michigan Synthetic Approaches to Sustainable Polymers
Shanina Sanders Johnson Spelman College Teaching, Mentoring, & Cyclopropanes: Reflections from a Chemist’s Journey[18]
Sarah Reisman Caltech Making Molecules: Chemistry and Life Lessons
Margaret Chu-Moyer[19][20] Amgen Love Letters to Chemistry
Alanna Schepartz UC Berkeley Delivery of Therapeutic Proteins to the Cytosol: Myth and Reality

2021 Career Panel featured Kay Brummond (Univ of Pittsburgh), Martha A. Sarpong (GlaxoSmithKline), Emma Radoux (Royal Society of Chemistry), Callie Bryan (Janssen), Kimberly Steward (Cargill) and Daisy Rosas Vargas (Ithaca College).

2022 Meeting and Speakers

The fourth annual Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry Conference was a hybrid meeting on Thursday, June 23, and Friday, June 24, 2022.[13]

Name Affiliation Presentation Title
Abigail Doyle UCLA Machine Learning Tools for Reaction Development and Catalyst Design
Christina Woo Harvard University Chemical Approaches to Edit Post-Translational Modifications in Cells
Alison Wendlandt MIT Selective Catalytic Isomerization Reactions
Davita Watkins University of Mississippi Supramolecular Polymer Hybrids For Theranostic Nanomedicine
Charlotte Allerton Pfizer The Discovery of Paxlovid

References

  1. ↑ Sanford, Melanie S. (2020-06-17). "Equity and Inclusion in the Chemical Sciences Requires Actions not Just Words". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 142 (26): 11317–11318. doi:10.1021/jacs.0c06482. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 32551579.
  2. ↑ Reisman, Sarah E.; Sarpong, Richmond; Sigman, Matthew S.; Yoon, Tehshik P. (2020-08-10). "Organic Chemistry: A Call to Action for Diversity and Inclusion". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 85 (16): 10287–10292. doi:10.1021/acs.joc.0c01607. ISSN 0022-3263. PMID 32806096.
  3. 1 2 "EWOC – Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry". Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  4. 1 2 Johnson, Shanina Sanders (2021-10-27). "An organic chemistry community". Nature Chemistry. 13 (11): 1036–1037. Bibcode:2021NatCh..13.1036J. doi:10.1038/s41557-021-00821-z. ISSN 1755-4349. PMID 34707235. S2CID 240006056.
  5. ↑ Ruck, Rebecca T.; Faul, Margaret M. (2019-02-15). "Gender Diversity in Process Chemistry". Organic Process Research & Development. 23 (2): 109–113. doi:10.1021/acs.oprd.8b00378. ISSN 1083-6160.
  6. ↑ Lisa m. Jarvis (2018-03-05). "Why can't the drug industry solve its gender diversity problem?". C&EN Global Enterprise. 96 (10): 26–33. doi:10.1021/cen-09610-cover. ISSN 2474-7408.
  7. ↑ "Breaking the barriers". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  8. ↑ Sanford, Melanie S.; Chiu, Pauline; Kozlowski, Marisa C.; Puchlopek-Dermenci, Angela L. A. (2020-02-11). "Celebrating Women in Organic Chemistry". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 142 (7): 3277–3280. doi:10.1021/jacs.0c01163. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 32041398.
  9. ↑ Sanford, Melanie S.; Chiu, Pauline; Kozlowski, Marisa C.; Puchlopek-Dermenci, Angela L. A. (2020-02-11). "Celebrating Women in Organic Chemistry". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 85 (4): 1769–1772. doi:10.1021/acs.joc.0c00247. ISSN 0022-3263. PMID 32041408.
  10. ↑ Sanford, Melanie S.; Chiu, Pauline; Kozlowski, Marisa C.; Puchlopek-Dermenci, Angela L. A. (2020-02-21). "Celebrating Women in Organic Chemistry". Organic Letters. 22 (4): 1227–1230. doi:10.1021/acs.orglett.0c00352. ISSN 1523-7060. PMID 32041412.
  11. ↑ "EWOC Chapters, Affiliates & Other EWOC-Related Events – EWOC". Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  12. ↑ Beaker, The Weekly. "Midwest Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry (EWOC) Chapter - Carleton College". www.carleton.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  13. 1 2 Bethany Halford (2022-06-17). "Chemists rethink work travel". Chemical & Engineering News: 18–20. doi:10.47287/cen-10022-feature2. ISSN 1520-605X. S2CID 249900612.
  14. ↑ "EWOC 2019 – EWOC". Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  15. ↑ "ACS Celebrates Women in Organic Chemistry at EWOC 2020". ACS Axial. 2020-08-26. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  16. ↑ "EWOC 2021". Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  17. ↑ Dibrell, Sara E.; Holman, Karli R.; Reisman, Sarah E. (2021-12-20). "Plugging the Leak: Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry". Angewandte Chemie. 134 (5). doi:10.1002/ange.202111765. ISSN 0044-8249.
  18. ↑ Johnson, Shanina Sanders; Gaines, Michelle K.; Van Vleet, Mary J.; Jackson, Kimberly M.; Barrett, Cachetne; Camp, Davita; Mancia, Marisela De Leon; Hibbard, Lisa; Rodriguez, Augusto (2020-09-08). "Unleashing Our Chemistry Superpowers: Promoting Student Success and Well-Being at a Black Women's College during COVID-19". Journal of Chemical Education. 97 (9): 3369–3373. Bibcode:2020JChEd..97.3369J. doi:10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00728. ISSN 0021-9584.
  19. ↑ "Alumna Margaret Chu-Moyer in the news | College of Chemistry". chemistry.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  20. ↑ "Meet the Scientist: Margaret Chu-Moyer's Unexpected Path to Biotech". Amgen Foundation's Leadership in Science Education. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
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