Dear Veronica
You are absolutely right and this was an error on my part. I am aware of subconscious bias, and obviously need to do more to correct
this! I can assure you the conference committee has put gender balance at the heart of speaker selection; and I have in fact championed it during our discussions, as have others. We expect a good gender balance in the final agenda. As you say there are
already many good female speakers, and we expect many more.
Please accept my apologies for this error.
Mick
From: VAN HEYNINGEN Veronica
Sent: 26 July 2016 09:19
To: OVERDUIN Bert <Bert.Overduin@ed.ac.uk>
Cc: edinburgh_bioinformatics@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; nextgenbug-archive@googlegroups.com; ashworthall@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; icmb@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; wcb@lists.ed.ac.uk; scrm-bio@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; btostaff@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; sbs-admin@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; igmm-users@hgu.mrc.ac.uk;
sacrib@sac.ac.uk; 47-lfcrescent@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; 49-lfcrescent@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; 51-lfcrescent@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; bionews <bionews@st-andrews.ac.uk>; idir@st-andrews.ac.uk; internal comms <internalcomms@hutton.ac.uk>; bbclist@psb.ugent.be; WATSON Mick <mick.watson@roslin.ed.ac.uk>
Subject: SUBCONSCIOUS? BIAS Re: [igmm-dm] [igmm-users] Genome Science, Liverpool, 30th August - 1st September 2016
Dear Organisers
Looks like an interesting meeting. Why do you send an email advertising it with just eight male speakers highlighted. I looked on the website and there are a number of women speakers too. This attitude is offensive and off-putting for many
scientists and people in general. I decided not to tweet about it, but perhaps I should to make you think more carefully next time. You could even make some amends by sending out a new email and pointing out your initial unthinking bias.
Veronica
***********************************
Sent from my iPad
Veronica van Heyningen CBE FRS
Tel: +44 20 7627 4206
Mobile: + 44 7740 965 986
Honorary Professor and Visiting Scientist
Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL
11-43 Bath Street
London EC1V 9EL
&
MRC Human Genetics Unit
IGMM
Crewe Road
EDINBURGH EH4 2XU
On 26 Jul 2016, at 08:56, Bert Overduin <Bert.Overduin@ed.ac.uk> wrote: