[BBC] SUBCONSCIOUS? BIAS Re: [igmm-dm] [igmm-users] Genome Science, Liverpool, 30th August - 1st September 2016

[WATSON Mick]

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 at ed.ac.uk>
Cc: edinburgh_bioinformatics at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; nextgenbug-archive at googlegroups.com; ashworthall at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; icmb at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; wcb at lists.ed.ac.uk; scrm-bio at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; btostaff at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; sbs-admin at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; igmm-users at hgu.mrc.ac.uk; sacrib at sac.ac.uk; 47-lfcrescent at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; 49-lfcrescent at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; 51-lfcrescent at mlist.is.ed.ac.uk; bionews <bionews at st-andrews.ac.uk>; idir at st-andrews.ac.uk; internal comms <internalcomms at hutton.ac.uk>; bbclist at psb.ugent.be; WATSON Mick <mick.watson at 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 at ed.ac.uk<mailto:Bert.Overduin at ed.ac.uk>> wrote:
Forwarding on behalf of Mick Watson:


Dear All

I'm delighted to invite you to a conference I help organise every year, Genome Science, with speakers who use the latest genomic technologies to tackle problems from across the life sciences:

Genome Science 2016 http://genomescience.org.uk/, Liverpool, 30th August - 1st September 2016

We have sessions on:

Bioinformatics and Computational genomics
Clinical and translational genomics
Environmental genomics
Developmental biology
Genome engineering and synthetic biology (NEW this year)
Microbial genomics
New Technologies, incl. highlight single cell genomics
Plant and animal genomics
Vendor sessions
Science Communication
Career development/opportunities

Speakers include:

Ed Yong, Science Communicator and author recent book "I contain multitudes" (http://tinyurl.com/zk6qaw3)
Dr Kosuke Yusa, Sanger, Genome Engineering
Dr Jack Gilbert, Argonne National Laboratory, Microbiome
Dr Jose Clemente, Mount Sinai
Dr David Aanensen, Sanger, Pathogen Surveillanece
Prof Allan Downie, John Innes, Ash Dieback
Our very own Jeffrey Schoenebeck!
Michael Baym, Harvard, Systems Biology

And many many more!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Cheers
Mick

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.



--
Bert Overduin, PhD
TRAINING AND OUTREACH BIOINFORMATICIAN
Bert.Overduin at ed.ac.uk<mailto:Bert.Overduin at ed.ac.uk>
orcid.org/0000-0002-5281-8838<http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5281-8838>

EDINBURGH GENOMICS
The University of Edinburgh
Ashworth Laboratories
The King's Buildings
Charlotte Auerbach Road
Edinburgh EH9 3FL
Scotland, United Kingdom

tel. +44(0)1316507403
http://genomics.ed.ac.uk
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
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