The Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs
kicked-off this year’s Black History Month through a symposium on Monday, including speeches from President Carol Folt, alumni and student leaders. (Gina Nguyen | Daily Trojan)
USC kicked off Black History Month with a symposium Monday, presenting students in attendance with a brief welcome from Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs director Greedley F. Harris III. Over a backdrop of two Black students receiving their diplomas, Harris III announced the theme of Black History Month at USC: Black history in the making.
The event, which focused on the innovations of Black alumni and recognition of the Black USC community, was hosted by CBCSA.
Fighting Racial Inequity by Funding Black Scientists
Representatives from a network of women deans, chairs and distinguished faculty in biomedical engineering are calling upon the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies to address disparities in allocating support to Black researchers. The group made the call to action in the Jan. 26, 2021, issue of the journal Cell.
In examining the racial inequities and injustices that prevent Black faculty from equitably contributing to science and achieving their full potential, insufficient federal funding for research by Black scientists rose to the top as a key issue.
According to studies of National Institutes of Health research funding allocations, Black applicant award rates have stood at about 55 percent of that of white principal investigators of similar academic achievement. Despite internal reviews of the reasons behind this disparity, and promises to do better, the funding gap continues.
Mario Gutierrez consults Prof. Lola Eniola while using fluorescent microscopy to study the effect of red blood rigidification on the thermodynamics of blood flow. Graduate students and post-docs work at Prof. Lola Eniola’s Cell Adhesion & Drug Delivery Lab in North Campus Research Complex. Image credit: Marcin Szczepanski/Multimedia Director and Senior Producer, University of Michigan, College of Engineering
White researchers are nearly twice as likely to be awarded a grant than Black scientists of similar academic achievement, studies of National Institutes of Health funding programs show and a group of 19 biomedical engineering leaders is calling on NIH and other funding agencies to address the stark disparity.