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‘We’re in one of the cataclysmic times of change’: first female NSF director on discrimination and COVID-19

One-time head of the US National Science Foundation Rita Colwell speaks out on sexism — and how her experiences as a leader in science can inform pandemic response.
  1. Alexandra Witze
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Rita Colwell is the former director of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) — the first woman to hold that post — and a leader in cholera research. In her new book, A Lab of One’s Own: One Woman’s Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science (written with Sharon Bertsch McGrayne), she opens up on one topic she hasn’t said much about publicly: her battle to improve the situation for women in science. “I reached an age and stage in my career where I can be as candid as I wish,” says Colwell, a microbiologist at the University of Maryland College Park. She spoke to Nature about discrimination, and how her experiences as a researcher and agency leader during the 2001 anthrax bioterror attacks can inform the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Nature 584, 180 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02314-4

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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