College Chemistry department wins Athena SWAN Gold award

The Imperial Department of Chemistry has won an Athena SWAN Gold Award, making it one of the four departments in the UK to win one. This is the first gold level award for Imperial. The award acknowledges success in the increasing numbers of female students in science, which improves equality in career progression and encouraging others to do the same. Numerous reasons have been given for the award to the Department of Chemistry. These include multiple examples of the department showing national leadership in encouraging diversity. Imperial and the University of Warwick established the Irene Joliot-Curie national career conference for women that work in science. Imperial College London has already won an institutional silver award, six departments have been awarded silver and four departments have been awarded bronze. The Athena SWAN scheme is managed by the Equality Challenge Unit, which is a charity that backs diversity and equality for staff and students in universities. The Athena SWAN Manager at the Equality Challenge Unit, Sarah Dickinson stated: “The department’s approach shows that they have been thinking about and working towards achieving broader cultural change for some time. The progress they have made with regards to gender and diversity more easily comes when the principles of the Charter are well embedded in the department, and this was evidenced by the submission.” The Head of the Department of Chemistry, Tom Welton commented on this achievement: “I am absolutely delighted at this fabulous result! When I became Head of Department in 2007, I realised that the future success of the department would depend, not only on the scientific excellence of our individual members, but on how well we work together. We freely give mutual support when things go wrong for those around us. I made it my challenge to create a culture where we can all do this for each other on a daily basis; making ‘fantastic’ ordinary, rather than an exception. This benefits everyone in the department, but women especially. Winning an Athena SWAN Gold not only recognizes the progress that we are making on transforming the Department’s working environment, it also provides impetus to help drive the next phase forward.” Imperial’s Provost, Professor James Stirling commented: “Gender equality is one of my personal priorities as Provost. Attracting, promoting and developing outstanding female scientists is crucial to our efforts to remain a world-leader in science and innovation. The whole College is proud of the Department of Chemistry for doing so much to promote opportunities for women in science. Staff at every level in each department are now working to build on and replicate this success.”