Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

The missing colours of chemistry

Nature Chemistry volume 13, pages 101–106 (2021) Cite this article

Subjects

An Author Correction to this article was published on 30 April 2021

This article has been updated

Ingrained prejudices and a lack of action addressing discrimination are some of the main reasons why academic chemistry is overwhelmingly white. Data and discussions on racial inequalities are often greeted with scepticism and cynicism within the community, yet they are necessary to fight racism — and anti-Black racism in particular.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Change history

References

  1. Hrabowski, F. A. III, Tracy, J. K. & Henderson, P. H. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 18137–18141 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Bumpus, N. Nature 583, 661 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Wingfield, A. H. Science 369, 351 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Widener, A. The leaky pipeline for Black chemists. Chem. Eng. News https://go.nature.com/leakypipeline (2020).

  5. Diversity Landscape of the Chemical Sciences: A Report by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC, 2018); https://go.nature.com/2v7mdfv

  6. Higher Education Staff Statistics: UK, 2018/19 (HESA, 2020); https://go.nature.com/3hZwMyP

  7. Ahmed, S., Dickinson, S., Hollinshead, K. McWhinnie, S & Panesor, T. Representation of Ethnic Groups in Chemistry and Physics (IOP and RSC, 2006); https://go.nature.com/38vYosx

  8. Rollock, N. Staying Power: The Career Experiences and Strategies of UK Black Female Professors (University and College Union, 2019); https://go.nature.com/3ouhogf

  9. Adams, R. Black female professors must deal with bullying to win promotion, report finds. The Guardian https://go.nature.com/399yABo (2019).

  10. Grove, J. Black female academics in UK ‘face pervasive bullying’. Times Higher Education https://go.nature.com/2JWdWvY (2019).

  11. Flaherty, C. The souls of Black professors. Inside Higher Ed https://go.nature.com/3bl3VDT (2020).

  12. Eisen, A. & Eaton, D. C. CBE: Life Sci. Educ. 16, ar65 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Yadav, A. & Seals, C. Int. J. of STEM Educ. 6, 15 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Diversity Results for UKRI Funding Data (UKRI, 2020); https://go.nature.com/3nzqBmr

  15. Bhopal, K. The Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Academics: A Comparative Study of the Unequal Academy 1–162 (Routledge, 2015).

  16. A Picture of the UK Scientific Workforce: Diversity Data Analysis for the Royal Society Summary Report (The Royal Society, 2014); https://go.nature.com/2MLr2gK

  17. Morgan, W. No black scientist has ever won a Nobel – that’s bad for science, and bad for society. Phys.org https://phys.org/news/2018-10-black-scientist-won-nobel-bad.html (2018).

  18. Seeman, J. I. Found. Chem. 20, 75–86 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Rāshid, R. & Morelon, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science (Routledge, 1996).

  20. Marks, J. Is science racist? (Polity Press, 2017).

  21. Govier, M. Notes Rec. R. Soc. Lond. 53, 203–217 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Boyle, R. A Picture of the UK Scientific Workforce; Diversity Data Analysis for the Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours: First Occasionally Written Among Some Other Essays to a Friend and Now Suffer’d To Come Abroad As the Beginning of an Experimental History of Colours (Printed for Henry Herringman, 1670).

  23. Malcolmson, C. in Studies of Skin Color in the Early Royal Society: Boyle, Cavendish, Swift (Routledge, 2016).

  24. Yale, E. The deep-rooted racism of science. Quartz https://go.nature.com/35EnW4T (2016).

  25. Hoffman, K. M., Trawalter, S., Axt, J. R. & Oliver, M. N. Proc Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 4296–4301 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. MacKenzie, D. Soc. Stud. Sci. 6, 499–532 (1976).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Soloway, R. A. Demography and Degeneration: Eugenics and the Declining Birthrate in Twentieth-Century Britain (Univ. North Carolina Press, 1990).

  28. Löwy, I. Br. J. Hist. Sci. 44, 245–274 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Schenk, F. & Parkes, A. S. Eugen. Rev. 60, 142–161 (1968).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Kevles, D. J. BMJ 319, 435–438 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Satyanarayana, M. Black chemists you should know about. Chem. Eng. News http://go.nature.com/38FysKY (2020).

  32. Bastian, H. Black History Month: Chemists’ powerful stories & the sociologist who studied them. PLOS https://go.nature.com/3onizy9 (2020).

  33. Carver, G. W. & Kremer, G. R. George Washington Carver in His Own Words (Univ. Missouri Press, 1987).

  34. Kyle, R. A. & Shampo, M. A. Mayo Clin. Proc. 71, 1170 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Ravin, J. G. & Higginbotham, E. J. Arch. Ophthalmol. 127, 690–692 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Rossiter, M. W. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940–1972 Vol. 2 (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1995).

  37. Brown, J. E. African American Women Chemists (Oxford Univ. Press, 2012).

  38. Racial Harassment Inquiry: Survey of University Students Research Report No. 129 (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2019); https://go.nature.com/2Lk8i7D

  39. Tackling Racial Harassment: Universities Challenged (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2019); https://go.nature.com/39lWOZ7

  40. Racial Harassment in British Universities: Qualitative Research Findings (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2019); https://go.nature.com/39fl9jq

  41. Morton, T. R. & Parsons, E. C. Sci. Ed. 102, 1363–1393 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Prescod-Weinstein, C. Signs 45, 421–447 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Gewin, V. Nature 583, 319–322 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Hofstra, B. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 9284–9291 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Freund, C. Black scientists are exposing the racist side of academia on Twitter. Massive Science https://go.nature.com/38uS5Ft (2020).

  46. Subbaraman, N. Nature 582, 327 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Viglione, G. Chemists grapple with lack of diversity displayed in ‘dude walls’ of honor. Chem. Eng. News https://go.nature.com/3i2eX23 (2019).

  48. Bhopal, K. White academia: will the Race Equality Charter make a difference? LSE https://go.nature.com/3i4Y3Aa (2016).

  49. Bhopal, K. & Henderson, H. Educ. Rev. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2019.1642305 (2019).

  50. UKRI. Notice of a joint Research England and Office for Students funding competition to reduce inequalities in postgraduate research study. The National Archives https://go.nature.com/35x0lmy (2020).

  51. Charbonneau, L. Most universities report having equity, diversity and inclusion plans, but challenges remain. University Affairs https://go.nature.com/3saYJs9 (2019).

  52. Gordon, A. Lack of diversity persists among teaching staff at Canadian universities, colleges, report finds. https://go.nature.com/3ozxKo6 (2018).

  53. Diversity, equity and inclusion: strategic issues for universities. European University Association https://eua.eu/news/426:diversity,%20-equity-and-inclusion-strategic-issues-for-universities.html (2019).

  54. Robson, K. Why won’t Canada collect data on race and student success? The Conversation https://go.nature.com/38zjTby (2018).

  55. Ovseiko, P. V. et al. BMJ 371, m3975 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Bhopal, K & Pitkin, C. Investigating Higher Education Institutions and Their Views on the Race Equality Charter (University and College Union, 2018); https://go.nature.com/38w4kBr

  57. Forrester, N. Nature 585, S65–S67 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  58. Mehta, D. Nature 559, 153 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Twitter: @Binuraj_Menon

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Binuraj R. K. Menon

Authors
  1. Binuraj R. K. Menon
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Binuraj R. K. Menon.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Menon, B.R.K. The missing colours of chemistry. Nat. Chem. 13, 101–106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-020-00632-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-020-00632-8

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing