OUR MISSION
JAWSChem is a chemistry seminar series designed to give a platform to young researchers in chemistry from all walks of life. In this era of missed conferences, and despite the move into the virtual space, opportunities for young chemists to share their research are still few and far between and we aim to change that.
We value the creativity of chemists working across sub-disciplines and their efforts to deeply investigate the topics they study. We also value the diversity of our community and strive to reflect this in our series by featuring chemists of various ethnicities, localities, sub-disciplines, and career status, etc. Our goal is for JAWSChem to serve as a global platform for chemists to present their research to the broader community, particularly those who typically have few chances to do so early in their career.
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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the very core of the foundations on which JAWSChem was built. While providing a platform for early-career chemists to present, we want to ensure we give equal opportunity to often-marginalised researchers. We provide a space in our abstract submission form for you to tell us if you identify as a member of one (or more) marginalised group(s). This information will help us stick to our goal, and adjust as necessary, but it will not be shared outside our founding committee.
OUR MISSION
JAWSChem is a chemistry seminar series designed to give a platform to young researchers in chemistry from all walks of life. In this era of missed conferences, and despite the move into the virtual space, opportunities for young chemists to share their research are still few and far between and we aim to change that.
We value the creativity of chemists working across sub-disciplines and their efforts to deeply investigate the topics they study. We also value the diversity of our community and strive to reflect this in our series by featuring chemists of various ethnicities, localities, sub-disciplines, and career status, etc. Our goal is for JAWSChem to serve as a global platform for chemists to present their research to the broader community, particularly those who typically have few chances to do so early in their career.
​
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the very core of the foundations on which JAWSChem was built. While providing a platform for early-career chemists to present, we want to ensure we give equal opportunity to often-marginalised researchers. We provide a space in our abstract submission form for you to tell us if you identify as a member of one (or more) marginalised group(s). This information will help us stick to our goal, and adjust as necessary, but it will not be shared outside our founding committee.
Statement read at seminar on April 20, 2021
Our mission at JAWSChem is to promote early career chemists of every race, every ethnicity, every gender, from every country, but we cannot succeed if members of our own community are at risk of being murdered, harassed, or targeted because of who they are or what they look like.
We condemn the killings of Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, and Anthony Thompson Jr., and the countless others who came before, including Mike Brown, George Floyd, Philando Castille, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner. We remember all those who have been murdered, both named and unknown, by racist white supremacist institutions. We mourn for those in the Asian community who have been assaulted, harassed, and killed by racist people. We reject the recent transphobic bills that have been proposed in many states in the US. While we are using this space to acknowledge the violence currently taking place in the US, we also decry the senseless loss of life across the world due to racist violence and policies that ignore people’s humanity and instead punish them with harassment, imprisonment, and trauma.
The persistent and systemic nature of violence against minorities takes a toll on many members of the chemistry community. The most recent tragedies are yet another reminder of the work that still needs to be done to address these issues of oppression. We call upon the chemistry community at large to report what tangible changes you have brought to your departments, institutions, and organizations over the past year and to continue this work supporting your marginalized students and colleagues.
We acknowledge that we too have not been able to create a fully representative venue and, in an effort of transparency, we will present our data and describe the actions we will be taking to address our deficiencies. We have succeeded in bringing together chemists from across the world, however we still have much to improve upon. We make this charge not as exemplars of virtue, but as people who make the same mistakes and are working to correct them.