License to Thrive

To Infinity and Beyond!

Despite being under-represented in the scientific fields, women have made great strides in using science to showcase their talents: 

The San Diego Supercomputer Center
When a new wing was added in 1997, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)
also developed a project to acknowledge the achivements of 16 female scientists
who faced fascism, racism, and discrimination based not only on gender but also class and ethnicity. Some achieved such pinnacles as the Nobel Prize, while others accomplishments are scarcely documented. 

The new wing featured a classroom designed for workshops in the most advanced computational and visualization techniques. The classroom was furnished with 16 new Silicon Graphics workstations. The machines had Internet addresses, which were strings of numbers, but since humans misremember numbers, the center decided all of the machines needed memorable names as well. To recognize the several educational programs that SDSC directs at girls and young women interested in careers in the sciences, the SDSC named each machine after a woman who had a career in or made a significant contribution to a scientific discipline. Brief biographies
were written for each woman selected, and these were put on the walls
of the classroom.

Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee
Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee was the first African-American woman to be appointed dean
of an American medical school, the College of Osteopathic Medicine of Ohio University.

Dr. Ross-Lee was born in Detroit and is the sister of Diana Ross.  She began her
pre-med studies at Wayne State University where her advisor, who did not believe that women should be physicians, declined to approve Ross-Lee's request to study human anatomy as her major.  She graduated with a bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry but went on to train as a teacher instend of a doctor.

Through the National Teachers Corp, she earned a degree while teaching
and went on to study osteopathic medicine at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic medicine where she graduated in 1973.  She served in numerous positions before becoming dean at Ohio University where she remained until 2001.  She currently is Vice President for Health Sciences and Medical Affairs at NY Institute of Technology's New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.