Experience is widely recognized as one of life’s most effective teachers, and organizers of the upcoming 2022 Susan M. Arseven ’75 Conference for Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) guarantee multiple opportunities to learn from some of the best within the STEM professions and Aggieland later this month from the Texas A&M campus.
Registration opened Monday (Feb. 7) for the popular annual WISE Conference, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and set to be presented virtually on Saturday, Feb. 26, via Zoom. This year’s theme, Beyond the Screen: Reconnecting With STEM, focuses on exploring a more expansive definition of career prospects while creating professional and personal networks — critical connections essential to successfully navigating, mastering and maximizing the many facets and phases of a successful and fulfilling life.
The event will feature a day of common ground, conversation and inspiration among friends in a series of interactive presentations featuring speakers who will share their insights gained along the journey from diploma to career and all points in between. Topics include conquering the COVID-19 infodemic, communicating science and technology, creating effective personal networks and much more.
The daylong conference (see schedule), annually organized and hosted by Texas A&M Science Outreach, will feature a keynote presentation by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston whose teaching and research are focused on improving health outcomes among populations exposed to violence. In addition to being an epidemiologist, researcher and educator, Jetelina is the founder and sole author of the viral newsletter Your Local Epidemiologist that translates scientific research and public health science topics such as COVID-19 for a general audience. To date, her newsletter has reached more than 90 million people and is actively translated into six different languages.
The complete list of speakers includes a project engineer from Boeing as well as various professors from the Texas A&M Colleges of Engineering, Medicine, and Science.
The conference is named in honor of the late Dr. Susan M. Arseven ’75, one of the leading strategists in information technology during a career spanning several disciplines and a pioneering example of Aggie leadership. Thanks to generous funding from a permanent endowment established 20 years ago in support of the conference on its 10th anniversary in 2002 through the Texas A&M Foundation by Arseven’s husband, biostatistician and 1974 Texas A&M statistics Ph.D. graduate Dr. Ersen Arseven, the event also showcases the Susan M. Arseven Make-A-Difference Memorial Award — two $1,000 awards presented to female graduate students pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees in science, engineering or technology as part of the conference.
The conference registration fee is $30 ($20 for students) and includes a pre-conference virtual reception on Friday, Feb. 25 via Zoom and a conference swag bag. Participants are encouraged to register online before the Feb. 23 deadline and also to check with their academic departments, several of which cover registration fees.
Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) at Texas A&M is a university-recognized organization of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty and staff from various science and engineering backgrounds. The group was created to address specific problems faced by women in non-traditional fields.
For more information about the conference or other outreach events and women’s programs in the College of Science, visit https://scienceoutreach.tamu.edu.