UCSD Hosts Nationally
Recognized Diversity Scholar

March 18, 2008

By Jan Jennings

Donna J. Nelson, Ph.D., a nationally recognized researcher on diversity in the scientific workforce and a chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma, will serve as a visiting Chancellor Diversity Scholar at the University of California, San Diego through August.

Dr. Donna J. Nelson

“My research group and I have been doing research on the representation of women and minorities among science and engineering faculty at research universities since 2000,” says Nelson, whose position at UCSD was recently created by Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. “I am very excited to be able to learn about the range of programs in place for students, staff, and faculty at UC San Diego.

Nelson says that as California moves forward in its efforts to serve its citizens, much expertise will be developed in this state and that “positions such as this one created by Chancellor Fox will be an excellent way for California to share its diversity expertise and leadership with other parts of the United States.”

Nelson’s current research concerns three global challenges: energy, environment, and scientific workforce development. She frequently speaks on the interrelationship of these challenges.

“Dr. Nelson’s research on diversity in the scientific workforce is very revealing and demonstrates that there is a national imperative to address this problem,” says Dr. Sandra P.  Daley, UCSD’s associate chancellor/chief diversity officer and professor of pediatrics at the UCSD School of Medicine. “She has testified before Congress, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Health.”

Nelson’s scientific workforce development research entails surveys of faculty race/ethnicity/gender and rank in the top 50 departments in each of 15 science and engineering disciplines. Comparing her faculty data verses NSF, Ph.D. and B.S attainment revealed that women and minorities are much less represented among professors than among degree recipients.

At UCSD, Dr. Daley says Nelson will be able “to observe and participate in the development, assessment and coordination of faculty, staff and student initiatives throughout the general campus, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the School of Medicine, and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.”

In chemical research, Nelson’s concerns involve functionalizing single walled carbon nanotubes which has application in energy research and technology development.

Nelson’s awards include Fulbright Scholar, NSF Advance Leadership Award, Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Distinguished Scientist of the Year, Women’s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, Guggenheim Award, Oklahoma Outstanding Professor Award, Minority Health Professions Foundation Hall of Fame Inductee, Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award, and NSF Creativity Extension.

In the past four years, Nelson has spoken at more than 100 national meetings of professional societies and organizations, Congressional briefings, teleconferences, universities and radio and television programs.

An associate professor of chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, Nelson has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma, a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Texas, Austin, and pursued post-doctoral work at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She maintains her lab at the University of Oklahoma and will be at UCSD for a number of days each month.

Media Contact: Jan Jennings, 858-822-1684