The Washington University physics department recognized the need for action and convened an emergency faculty meeting regarding the publications. The department formed a Workplace Climate and Diversity Committee to spearhead department-wide efforts at reform, not only to properly react to past allegations but to proactively improve departmental climate for the future.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I spent two years taking undergraduate upper division classes, several more years studying for my Ph.D. and then almost three years as a post doc researcher in the Washington University physics department. It was a good place to be a woman.

In the 13 years that Mark Alford has been the chair of Washington University’s physics department, few women have held a tenured or tenure-track professorship. Currently, that number is zero.