August 18, 2020

Rebuttal: 

  • First and foremost, we as scientists and members of society have a moral obligation to reject discrimination, racism, and inequity in our profession. It is simply unacceptable to passively participate in a system that perpetuates injustice.

  • Pragmatically, diversity breeds innovation. Recent studies have found that PhD students from underrepresented demographics exhibit greater innovation in their dissertation research than their majority peers [1] and that ethnic diversity of authors on scientific research articles correlates with impact (measured by citations) [2]. We must therefore promote diversity to achieve our full potential as a scientific workforce.

  • BIPOC (i.e. minority) populations are disproportionately affected by many of the health issues that biomedical research aims to solve, such as cancer [3] and COVID-19 [4]. We need to leverage the personal insights and experiences of BIPOC scientists to drive innovative research to ultimately address public health crises.

Action items for our community