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:
“I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best—it’s all they’ll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money—provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don’t need it.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)
“We women are not made for governing and if we are good women, we must dislike these masculine occupations; but there are times which force one to take interest in them mal gré bon gré, and I do, of course, intensely.”
—Victoria (1819–1901)
“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)