A woman's likelihood of success in a scientific career has been shown to increase dramatically with the number of successful female scientists to which she is exposed during her college career. For this reason, the quarterly student-hosted "Distinguished Women in Science" seminar series was founded to provide graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with an opportunity to interact with prominent female role models.

The goal of the Distinguished Women in Science (DWIS) Colloquia is to provide seminars to the chemistry community that appeal to a broad audience. We aim to select speakers who are engaging, enthusiastic, and interested in interacting with students. The DWIS Committee requests assistance from all students in the department, according to the guidelines outlined below, in order to make this series a success.
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Selection Process

1. Each graduate student has the opportunity to nominate a DWIS speaker directly by contacting the DWIS Colloquia Coordinator (Chrissy Brown, cdbrown9@stanford.edu). Students are encouraged to nominate speakers they believe will appeal to a broad chemistry student audience and who are especially interested in meeting and speaking with students.
2. Nominations should include the following information: speaker's name; affiliation; sub-discipline; brief research description; and the name of a potential graduate student host. Nominations without a student host will not be accepted.
3. The DWIS Coordinator compiles the list of nominees and calls a meeting of the DWIS Colloquia Committee. The Committee will choose speakers from the list of nominees, making an effort to select a diverse group of speakers who represent the interests of the entire department.
4. The DWIS Coordinator will present the final speakers list to the SAC.
5. The DWIS Committee will invite the speaker and make arrangement for a student host. The DWIS committee will make every effort to pair invitees with students who have not hosted in the past; to more senior graduate students; to former students of the speaker; and to those whose group has not yet hosted.

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Format

The format of the Colloquia is as follows: All DWIS speakers will be invited for a one and one half day visit. The invitee spends the first day meeting with students and faculty and presenting her research to the department, as is customary for an SHC speaker.

The additional half day will include an informal breakfast to allow a larger group of students to have personal interaction with the speaker than can be accommodated at the dinner. Following breakfast, the DWIS speaker will present a second, informal talk on her experiences in science, particularly focusing on gender and mentoring issues. This talk will be followed by a question and answer session to encourage discussion of these issues.

In its inaugural 2004-2005 year, the Stanford Chemistry Department will welcome two female chemists of outstanding scientific achievement for a one and one half-day visit to the department.
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Arrangement of Speaker's Schedule and Dinner Invitation

1. Two weeks prior to the seminar date, the host contacts the graduate students, postdocs, and faculty via email. Students/groups are responsible for indicating to the host their interest in meeting with the speaker by a given deadline.
   1. All students/groups who respond by the deadline will be given equal priority for accommodation in the speaker's schedule (i.e., time slots are not first-come-first-served).
   2. If a student/group responds after the deadline set by the host, the host will make attempt to accommodate the group.
   3. Faculty may request individual meeting times, but priority for time slots will be given to graduate students.
2. Graduate students are also invited to go to dinner with the speaker. The same sign-up deadline applies to dinner. In total, 10 people go to dinner, including the speaker and host. The dinner selection guidelines are as follows:
   1. All interested graduate students who respond by the deadline will be given equal priority to attend dinner (i.e., dinner slots are not first-come-first-served).
   2. The host will attempt to create a diverse group of graduate students from several research groups but with research interests similar to those of the speaker, including gender and mentoring issues. Preference will be given to graduate students of different research groups.
   3. Priority will be given to interested students not selected as hosts, students who have not already attended a dinner in the current academic year, and more senior graduate students.
   4. Dinner attendance is open to all graduate students, male and femal

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