Watch the Video: 2022 Alan T. Waterman Award Distinguished Lecture

The 2022 Alan T. Waterman Award, the nation’s highest honor for early career scientists and engineers bestowed by the U.S. National Science Foundation, was awarded to Daniel Larremore, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Colorado and the BioFrontiers Institute.

In the lecture (click to watch on NSF website), Larremore discussed his lab’s research examining the academic employment and doctoral education of all tenure-track faculty at Ph.D.-granting U.S. universities from 2011 to 2020, which revealed inequities in faculty production, prestige, retention and gender.

He spoke to the trends of women’s representation in academia that his research illustrated.

“Women’s representation is increasing in the academy, but I’m going to argue due to the efforts of generations past,” he said. “We’re forecasting a slow plateau.”

His analysis utilized mathematical functions to analyze demographics of tenure-track faculty, including gender representation and faculty hiring networks.

“I love using math, complex network, these ideas from demography and econometrics and epidemiology together,” he said. “I think it’s really hard to do research today without taking this interdisciplinary lease.”

He emphasized the need for further research, including qualitative research to understand individuals’ experiences and motivations, and the exploration of initiatives to increase inclusivity and opportunity in the field.