Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Back to School for the Social Set
When New York’s social leaders go back to school, they take it seriously — at least when they visit Rockefeller University.
The university’s beautiful campus, dotted with sculptures donated by David Rockefeller, was only part of the draw on a recent afternoon. What really lured a tony crowd of several hundred students-for-the-day was the symposium on the glass ceiling for women in science. This year the panelists, all from the Rockefeller faculty, were a professor of cell biology and genetics, Titia de Lange; a professor of the biology of addictive diseases, Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek, and an associate professor of neurogenetics and behavior, Leslie Vosshall.
The event has taken place for 10 years, and began with the establishment of the university’s Women & Science Committee. The symposia, at which the school’s luminaries discuss the triumphs and struggles of their careers, have raised more than $10 million, which has funded 33 graduate fellowships and 38 postdoctoral fellowships for women at the school. The committee also helped open a Child and Family center that provides childcare and preschool education for faculty, students, and staff.
“My professional success at the university is entirely dependent on the availability of high quality onsite day care for my daughter,” Ms. Vosshall said.
Nurturing women capable of finding cures and developing vaccines is considered a very worthy mission by the many non-scientists involved. The Women & Science Committee’s honorary chairmen are Mr. Rockefeller and Brooke Astor. Its chairwomen include Judith Berkowitz, Dr. Samantha Boardman Rosen, and Lulu Chow Wang. The committee membership list is a roster of bold-face names.
But what makes the committee truly powerful is the impact it has had on the university. In the past 10 years, the number of women science professors at Rockefeller has increased to 37% from 27%; the number of women heading labs has increased to 10 from six, and most impressively, the number of women trustees has tripled.
