Written by William Thompson
This June, Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry (EWOC) will have its annual conference, EWOC 2023 in Thousand Oaks, CA. The conference is June 22 and 23 and will be in a hybrid format, fully virtual on Thursday and both virtual and in person on Friday. If interested, you can register here.
For those unfamiliar, EWOC is an organization that consists of organic chemists and others whose mission is to empower women in science. The organization is welcoming to anyone, regardless of gender, and is dedicated to diversity, inclusion, equality, and justice. More information about this great group can be found on their website.
Stephanie Johnson, a 3rd year member of the Byers Group, was able to attend EWOC 2022 and provided us with some insight on her experience:
“Walking into an EWOC event is overwhelming – you experience this huge paradigm shift when you look around and realize that the vast majority of attendees are women. It honestly took me by surprise how much it affected me, because I’ve been to male-dominated conferences and never paid much attention to the gender make-up of the participants. It’s almost jarring that the conference itself proceeds similarly to any other chemistry conference: there are guest speakers and poster sessions, career panels and plenty of networking opportunities. Boston College’s own Prof. Eranthie Weerapana provided her insight into her experience as a female academic, as part of a panel that contained chemists from diverse backgrounds and careers. I particularly enjoyed the graduate poster session, having casual conversions about research with other female students over a glass of wine. EWOC has an aptly-chosen name: I left the conference feeling empowered and excited to make my own mark on organic chemistry.”
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