Hiring freezes, cancelled conferences, lab closures, and greater childcare demands during the COVID-19 pandemic have stymied research and stalled scientists’ careers. And underrepresented minority researchers have been hit particularly hard, according to a perspective piece published today (March 10) in Science Translational Medicine.
The Scientist spoke with Rotonya Carr, a hepatologist and liver disease researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and a coauthor of the article, to learn about the disparities that underrepresented minority scientists experience and the steps that institutions can take to support research programs and retain investigators during the pandemic.
Rotonya Carr: The coauthors and I are a group of underrepresented minority researchers who get together on a monthly or bimonthly basis, even pre-COVID, to talk about how things are going with our research programs and to be a support network for one another. We met after the lab shutdowns during the pandemic ...
