• Question: why are all the remaining scientists white

    Asked by ixabdulxi to Andrew, Ben, Beth, Heather, Louisa on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Louisa Chard

      Louisa Chard answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I think there are 100 scientists involved in this project and we are selected groups randomly. I can absolutely assure you that all ethnic backgrounds, skin colours, races, beliefs are equally represented in science. For example, in my group; I am British but was born in Holland. We have a British Chinese post-doc, a Chinese post-doc who is visiting for 2 years, a Sri-lankan research assisant who moved here 40 years ago, an Indian post-doc who moved here 10 years ago, a white British PhD student and my group leader is Chinese.

    • Photo: Ben Still

      Ben Still answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Sadly there is not the wide ranging interest in science across all ethnicity’s that there should be. I am not sure of the reasons for this and don’t feel I can comment being a stereotypical common white male scientist.

    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I’m A Scientist has only 100 participants, who were chosen anonymously based on a single statement of their research. The distribution of ethnicity however is far from representative of the scientific community and it has to be said that I can’t think of many more diverse fields. Science pulls everyone together, regardless of colour or creed, to all work towards common goals. We cannot select people on the basis of their ethnicity, either in a positive or negative way because that way we will not get the best scientists – we are judged purely on our scientific merit (as evidenced by our publications and research) and on nothing else.

    • Photo: Beth Dyson

      Beth Dyson answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I’m not sure! This isn’t reflected in science at work and at University! In my lab at the moment, we have a Malaysian student, a Sri Lankan student, 2 students from India, 1 scientist from Pakistan, a Mexican, a Spaniard and me!

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