‘I Never Applied’: Nobel Winner Explains Associate-Professor Status, but Critics Still See Steeper Slope for Women
By Cailin CroweOctober 2, 2018
Officials of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announce the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, on Tuesday. Donna Strickland, an associate professor at Canada’s U. of Waterloo, will share the award for her work on lasers. When asked why she wasn’t a full professor, she said: “I never applied.”Hanna Franzen, AFP, Getty Images
Donna Strickland will be one of three scientists to receive this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday morning. Strickland is only the third woman to win the prize, but it was her job title at Canada’s University of Waterloo that struck many observers as especially distinctive: associate professor.
Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.
Don’t have an account? Sign up now.
A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.
Officials of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announce the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, on Tuesday. Donna Strickland, an associate professor at Canada’s U. of Waterloo, will share the award for her work on lasers. When asked why she wasn’t a full professor, she said: “I never applied.”Hanna Franzen, AFP, Getty Images
Donna Strickland will be one of three scientists to receive this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday morning. Strickland is only the third woman to win the prize, but it was her job title at Canada’s University of Waterloo that struck many observers as especially distinctive: associate professor.
As an interviewer on the BBC Newshour put it, “Why aren’t you a full professor, given your eminence?”
Strickland, who will receive a one-quarter share of the prize, or about $250,000, for her work in “generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses” for lasers, responded: “I never applied.”
Still, Strickland’s job title struck many observers as further evidence of the unequal career paths walked by men and women in the academy. In other words, if a Nobel Prize isn’t enough to allow you to ascend to academe’s highest perch, what is?
In a statement, the University of Waterloo confirmed that Strickland had never applied to be a full professor, but it said she is a valued faculty member. (In the BBC interview, Strickland was asked if she would apply. She answered, “I don’t know,” and laughed.)
Here’s a selection of what academics had to say on social media:
For those commenting on Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland not being full professor: on the BBC this morning, she said she’d never applied. It’s worth noting women tend to wait longer to go up for promotion because of internal and external biases.
We don’t know why Dr. Strickland never applied (and I hope she does now!), but it’s also possible that it was a failure on her chair’s and mentor’s parts to encourage her. We don’t know the climate in her department, but physics is one of the worst fields for women.
Promotion to Full Professor come with a big salary bump, and some other perks (plus often more service expectations). But overall, women are more underrepresented as you go up in rank, so promotion is a big equity issue.
If I was UWaterloo I would forego the traditional review for promotion, let her know she’s now Full Professor, and just go ahead and make the change on the website before too many folks grab screenshots.
— Robert McGhostly Things Are Going to Happen (@mcnees) October 2, 2018
“I don’t know, Donna, the APT committee here can be pretty picky about promotion to Full.” pic.twitter.com/13qjI563SL
