Over the weekend, the 33rd annual Susan M. Arseven ’75 Conference for Women in Science and Engineering, or WISE, took place in the Memorial Student Center. With seven speakers from across four colleges at Texas A&M, attendants had the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the prolific women who have advanced science and engineering.
The lineup of speakers included Fuhui Tong, Ph.D. as the keynote speaker, Tatyana Igumenova, Ph.D. and Dr. Barbara Gastel, MD, MPH as two of the breakout speakers.
“What is next?” Gastel said. “You don’t have to have everything figured out. … Be willing to live with a little bit of ambiguity and uncertainty. There are lots of good paths and good orders for doing things.”
Women have historically been underrepresented in high-ranking academic positions and are largely concentrated in non-tenure tracks. According to studies, female professors earn only about 81% of the money their male counterparts make.
“Thinking back, views on gender roles as a kid — I think they were kind of nixed,” Gastel said. “I remember when my mother told me in dancing that the man always leads. I said, ‘No, you should decide whoever is the better dancer should lead,’ and that’s really been my philosophy all along. Whoever is better should be leading.”
The goal of WISE is to support women in science, engineering and technology fields, helping them earn degrees. The conference was founded in 1992 after women in the chemistry department noticed colleagues dropping out of their programs due to isolation.
Throughout three breakout sessions, six professors spoke about their accomplishments and career development: Department Head of Aerospace Engineering Ivett Leyva, assistant professor of biology Tapasree Roy Sarkar, chemical engineering and chemistry professor Perla Balbuena and Natalie Johnson, an associate professor of environmental health and chair of the interdisciplinary program in toxicology.
“I remember, many many years ago, a young cousin said, ‘You’re a doctor, but you’re a writer, but you’re a teacher, but you’re a woman,’” Gastel said.
Gastel described her career as bridging multiple disciplines, areas of focus and even countries. As an associate professor at MIT, she taught science communication in China for a year before returning to the United States to write a textbook: “Presenting Science to the Public.”
“I felt that through medical writing and editing, I’d be using my liberal arts and medical school and could reach more people than seeing patients one-by-one,” Gastel said. “What are you willing to be doing, or what are you excited to be doing, at three in the morning? … If I was editing a journal article, I wouldn’t even notice it was three in the morning.”
Academic conferences focusing on supporting women may be hindered by policies that the Trump presidency uses to direct funds. The Department of Education recently canceled 18 grants totaling $226 million because of “race-based discrimination and gender-identity ideology.”
“When you are faced with a fork in the road, it does take some thought and sometimes courage to take one road instead of another,” Igumenova said. “Especially when the outside environment uses our decisions as a deviation from the norms.”
Igumenova spoke about how her past has influenced her current interest in physics and biology. Her 45 research articles have been published in numerous journals, and she has been featured in local news stories about her lab, which is one of the only nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, capable labs in central Texas.
“Problem: There was only one NMR lab in Academic City, or Академгородок, where I grew up,” Igumenova said. “And there was an explicit policy stated there — they don’t take female students. It was perfectly acceptable at the time.”
Having been raised in the Soviet Union, Igumenova said her parents’ dedication to science and her own introverted personality both contributed to her ability to find success despite difficult situations. She moved to the United States for her Ph.D. and has since worked with NMR across the country.
“If, say, I go to the United States for graduate school, would I be able to come back to my own country and see my parents?” Igumanova said. “There are always ups and downs during our graduate studies.”
Igumenova’s lab researches proteins and the physics behind their unique shapes. Her research is instrumental in understanding how drugs interact with specific parts of the human body, such as cells and organs. Being the first researcher focused on NMR at A&M, Igumenova had to build her entire lab from scratch, including buying the NMR machine and constructing the facility to house it.
“I had to negotiate the purchase of this instrument and other instruments, and that was a few million dollar package,” Igumenova said. “I learned how to negotiate multimillion dollar deals. … I learned how to lead a diverse team.”
Women in academic positions have become more common, with specific opportunities for positions in science and technology. Despite federal and state-level pushback against these initiatives, both professors encouraged students to continue persevering and engaging in their education.
“Be ready to pursue unexpected opportunities,” Gastel said. “Take opportunities, take risks.”
