Graduate Women in Science (GWIS), also known as Sigma Delta Epsilon, is an organization for female graduate students in science, first established in 1921.
Membership is open to anyone, regardless of sex, who has at least a bachelor's degree in a scientific discipline. The organization is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that works to assist women in science. It does so through offering grants, awards, and fellowships; holding annual conferences and sponsoring additional meetings and symposia; publishing the quarterly GWIS Bulletin; and promoting the participation and representation of women in science fairs.
GWIS was established in 1921 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In keeping with the Greek system of naming chapters, the Cornell chapter became the "Alpha chapter" when the second ("Beta") chapter was added in 1922. The organization currently has 20 chapters throughout the United States and is headquartered in Avon, Massachusetts.
The GWIS National Meeting is held annually in June and is hosted by a local chapter.
Famous quotes containing the words graduate, women and/or science:
“1946: I go to graduate school at Tulane in order to get distance from a “possessive” mother. I see a lot of a red-haired girl named Maude-Ellen. My mother asks one day: “Does Maude-Ellen have warts? Every girl I’ve known named Maude-Ellen has had warts.” Right: Maude-Ellen had warts.”
—Bill Bouke (20th century)
“To many women marriage is only this. It is merely a physical change impinging on their ordinary nature, leaving their mentality untouched, their self-possession intact. They are not burnt by even the red fire of physical passion—far less by the white fire of love.”
—Mary Webb (1881–1927)
“I’ve been asked to give some words of advice for young women entering library/information science education. Does anyone ever take advice? The advice we give is usually what we would do or would have done if we had the chance, and the advice that’s taken, if ever, is often what we wanted to hear in the first place.”
—Phyllis Dain (b. 1930)