Quick Facts About WST

  • The Women, Science, and Technology (WST) minor, created in 1995, was the first university curricular program of its kind.

  • In 1995, the WST undergraduate minor initiated the first undergraduate research program at Georgia Tech.

  • The Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology, founded in 1998, was the first university research center of its kind.

  • The WST Learning Community, created in 2000, was Georgia Tech's first residential learning community.

  • Each year 48 women undergraduates live in the WST Learning Community.

  • The WST Learning Community annually sponsors approximately ten dinners and occasional other events with WST mentors and other faculty and staff members.

  • WST partnered with the Office of the Provost and the College of Engineering to develop the Georgia Tech-National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program (2001-2007), the first funded ADVANCE program and the first to complete its final NSF report and institutionalize activities.

  • The five-year NSF ADVANCE cooperative agreement had a budget of $3.7 million to support the advancement of female faculty, to study barriers and facilitators in promotion and tenure, and to create instruments to eliminate bias in faculty evaluation (see the ADEPT program website for more information).

  • Approximately 150 faculty and staff and 300 students and alumnae subscribe to WST listservs.

  • Male faculty members are also welcome to mentor or be an undergraduate research supervisor for a WST Learning Community resident.

  • WST was awarded a best practices citation for its support of faculty-student interaction by Office of Organizational Development in 2005.

  • WST organized the first international conference designed to facilitate and study the international research collaborations of women engineering faculty, WIRES 2009, which took place in Barcelona, Spain.

  • WST founded GEMS (Girls Excelling in Math and Science), a Girl Scout science club, at Inman Middle School in 2007. Approximately thirty female students participate in GEMS interactive weekly sessions.